Weasleys' Wizarding Woes
by cassmaster
Summary: Fred and George, Forge and Gred, The Weasley Twins. They are inseparable and bonded, bonded by something that only twins could understand. Never, ever, would they have imagined that something could ever tear them apart, especially women.
1. Dreams

**ONE**

Just outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole on a warm summer morning, two identical boys slept sound asleep in their bunks. Their fiery red hair was visible just above the comforts of their home knitted blankets, and large thin feet hung over the edges of the bed of the top bunk lazily. The boys' breathing was heavy as they dreamt dreams of opening their own joke shop, giving kids all new ways to wreak havoc at Hogwarts (their school of witchcraft and wizardry). However, their fantasies were cut short by a loud shrill voice that belonged to their mother ringing through the rickety house.

"RISE AND SHINE MY DEARIES, IT MAY BE SUMMER BUT I WILL NOT LET YOU SLEEP IN PAST NOON! ALL OF YOU, UP!" Although the voice was yelling and sounded angry, all the children who heard it knew that their mother meant well and could only want the best for their children. But perhaps the best for her twin boys was not waking up during their summer holidays before ten o'clock; perhaps the best was to let them sleep until their bodies forced them to wake.

George grunted from the bottom bunk and rolled over to his side, facing what their mother referred to as 'a tremendous disaster' but to him and his brother was the start of their career. He rubbed his eyes and with the echo of his mother's voice still ringing in his ears he sat up and –

"AGH!" He yelled, slouching over. He had just hit the bottom of Fred's bunk with the top of his head; even the mess of red hair hadn't softened the blow. He muttered silently under his breath and eyed his brothers' foot and a mischievous grin filled his face.

George stood carefully and checking that his brother was sleeping soundly he reached thin fingers towards his twins foot and began to wiggle them in a very quick succession.

Fred jolted with a start when he felt the fingernails tickling is feet, loud laughter erupted from his mouth and he began to twist and turn wrapping his blankets around him. Eventually, his brother's fingers subsided and Fred sat atop his bed, slightly hunched over to avoid hitting his head of the ceiling grinning at his twin.

"Shall we go down and see what-"

"-Mum has made for breakfast?" George finished Fred's sentence and Fred hopped off the bed and joined his brother as they bounded down the rickety staircase and into their kitchen to greet their mother.

All bitter thoughts about being woken before the stores in the village had time to open were driven out of the twins' mind when they saw a feast of a breakfast laid out of the table before them. Fred and George took seats beside each other and began to grab as many sausages, scrambled eggs, and bits of bacon and toast as they could before digging in to the scrumptious meal.

"Ummy deares' we are umbled by your licious reats" George said through a mouth full of bacon.

Molly Weasley smiled appreciatively at her two boys and tousled their hair, scolding George for talking with his mouth open and then turned towards the staircase to yell up to the rest of her children.

Minutes later, Ginny-the only girl and youngest of the Weasley clan-emerged from the staircase in a light housecoat and took a seat across from her brothers in silence. Soon after Ron-a tall gangly boy who was best friends with Harry Potter-stumbled down the last few steps and closed his eyes as he lay on the floor. Moments later Harry Potter came down the stairs looking just as tired as Ron had and prodded his best friend in the side, helping him up and then joining everyone at the breakfast table.

"Where's Percy mum?" Ron asked sleepily staring at his mum, this caused him to accidentally dip his toast into his pumpkin juice and pop it into his mouth. Fred and George sniggered silently as their brother stopped chewing for a moment, considered the taste and then shrugged and resumed to swallow the pumpkin tasting toast.

"At the Ministry with your father, you know he's got himself a job now!" Mrs. Weasley huffed and magically cleaned up the kitchen with one swipe of her wand.

"Oh righ, what's he doin again?" Ron asked, fully aware that he was dipping his toast in his pumpkin juice and biting it off with a satisfied grin. Fred and George glanced at each other with the same worried expression on their face-they knew their brother was strange but dipping toast into pumpkin juice was downright mad.

"Wiping Fudge's arse I suppose" said George who received two things: a grin of appreciation from his twin and a smack on the head with a large cooking book from his mother whose face was reddening with anger.

"Come off it mum! He was only joking," Fred winked at his brother, sister and Harry all of whom were now stifling their laughter across the table. This earned him a smack as well and both he and George muttered apologies to their mother who straightened herself up and began to clear away the empty dishes.

"He is working in the Department of International Magical Co-operation, and if you two do not smarten up in your studies you will be the ones waiting on the streets offering to wipe your brother's arse!" Mrs. Weasley yelled, speaking of the poor academic performances of both twins.

"Don't you fret over a thing mum -"

"-Yeah we've got everything figured out -"

"-Sort of -"

"- We're going to open up a joke shop in Diagon Alley!" Fred and George grinned from ear to ear; this was their dream as they'd been planning with their close mate Lee Jordan since third year. They had yet to figure out all the fine details but they each had a general idea of what they were going to do with this idea.

Their mother's eyes narrowed and after she'd finished piling bacon on to Harry's plate (Ron stole at least half) she rounded onto the boys and her usually cheery face was worried and angry.

"No, no, no! Certainly not! You will work at The Ministry like your father and Percy!" She shrieked.

"But mum, we don't _want_ to be like Prissy Percy -"

"- And because our minds are … creatively different we thought it best to-"

"- Do something different, don't fret we've got it all figured…oh no!" Fred groaned and pointed to the half open window where two owls could be seen in the distance. Mrs. Weasley hobbled over to the window and opened in just in time for the two sophisticated looking barn owls soared through the window each with a neat letter tied gently to their legs.

Fred and George scrambled over each other to get out of the kitchen and away from the owls. These were their OWL results, knowing very well that neither of them did anywhere near as well as Percy – or the other older Weasley boys - they knew that it would be in their best interest to get as far away from their mother as they could manage.

They fell to the floor and scampered up but Mrs. Weasley had grabbed each boy by their bare shoulders and forced them back into their chairs. The boys sulked and untied the letter that was addressed to them, once the owls were free of their delivery they nipped at some toast and flew away.

Reluctantly the twins opened their letters and hid the results from their mothers prying eyes. After surveying their results and nodding in acceptance the boys swapped and scanned each others. Unsurprisingly they each received only three: Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, and Transfiguration.

"THREE OWLS EACH!" Mrs. Weasley roared snatching the twins results and sinking into an empty chair. "I never imagined – how – where did we go wrong?" She wailed, throwing the parchment back onto the table.

Fred and George shrugged, they felt a pang of guilt for disappointing their mother but had she really expected them to get as many OWL's as Percy and Bill? Had she been ignoring all the owls she'd received from the Headmaster the past six years? Had she turned a blind eye to her trouble making twins?

"You two had better get your act together – both of you! Or…or else…" she ended with a frustrated sigh and shook her head before getting up and walking over to the empty sink.

"Don't worry mum!" Fred lifted himself from his place at the table and walked over to his mother and placed a loving hand on her back, rubbing it softly. George followed suit and rubbed her other side, resting his chin on her sloping shoulder.

"Yeah mum, cheer up! We'll make it, trust us!" George batted pale lashes up at his mother whose eyes were glistening with tears.

"Oh alright, alright, no more nonsense but if I get one more letter from Albus I will have both of you sent straight home!" She warned, blinking away the tears and the twins nodded in agreement, thankful that their mother had yet to see their room lately. If she got wind of the inventions they'd been creating she'd have their heads.

Fred and George had always been troublemakers, ever since they were young. They pulled pranks on everyone around them, and took little interest in their school work. It wasn't until around Christmas of their fourth year when they were unsatisfied with the selection of jokes that Zonoko had to offer and began to fiddle with the dungbombs, attempting to make them shoot out sneezewort, the success of their experiment sparked the idea of toying with other items and then finally, the decision to create their own line of joke items for their own amusement and perhaps own their own shop.

After breakfast the boys slipped back up to their room and began to sort through their inventory, George nicked small boxes of, Ton-Tongue Toffees, Canary Creams, Nosebleed Nougats, Puking Pastilles, and Fainting Fancies and sat cross-legged on the carpet in the middle of their room while Fred sprawled face up beside him. These sweets were their most recent developments, well, not so recent. They'd been working on the toffees for sixth months and only perfected them weeks ago, and the others had been created months before the end of term and were still needing to be fixed.

"D'you reckon we should … y'know … uh …" Fred stammered, trying to find the right words to express what he was thinking at the moment.

"Go on then, spit it out," George encouraged his brother, examining a Canary Cream carefully between his fingers. Fred usually burst out with statements and never took the time to think about what he was saying so when he stuttered and stared off into space with a certain look in his eyes George could tell that he was thinking deeply.

"Well I just thought that – er – you know … never mind." He shook his head and reached his long arm out and took the small yellow cream biscuit from George's fingers and popped it into his mouth. He immediately transfigured into a bright yellow canary chirping wildly as he flew around the room for a few fleeting moments and then a small burst of feathers later and Fred was standing at the edge of their bunk with a wide smile on his face.

"Everything is – AGH!" Fred let out a yelp of surprise as he peaked down his knickers, George scrambled to his feet as Fred's trousers fell to his ankles and he stared at him with a pained expression on his face. "They're – just – can't – gone!" He breathed staring at his twin who wore an identical expression of pain and shock.

"You – no – that can't have – how!" George yelled, his brain working a mile a minute. They took all the necessary precautions before charming the cream; they checked the spells over and over, and they'd tested them on themselves a week ago! How could something have gone so horribly wrong?

George was pulled out of his thoughts when a loud bark of laughter made him turn his head and gape at his brother. Fred was lying on his side clutching his stomach and pounding on the floorboards with his fist, his face was steadily growing red and he gasped for breaths between roars of laughter.

"You – should've – seen – your – face!" Fred breathed. He was sitting upright with his trousers round his ankles now and his hand was clutching his aching stomach. He grinned up at his twin who scowled.

After several minutes of lighthearted bickering the twins turned back to their latest invention: Nosebleed Nougats. They had yet to perfect the end that caused the nosebleed; instead they found that the candy gave them an enormous headache that could only be stopped by a gentle hum of any choice song by The Weird Sisters.

"Whys it do that?" Fred asked after the boys had eaten dinner and were now lounging about in their room, too full to continue tinkering with the nougats. Fred had endured a rather awful headache before dinner that had him in tears, and what was even worse was having to listen to The Weird Sisters crooning over lost loves.

George merely yawned and crawled onto his bottom bunk, snuggling up to his home knitted blanket, letting his eyelids fall over large brown eyes. He neither knew, nor cared why the nougats kept giving them foul headaches, he wanted to know how to fix it, but that could wait till morning.

Fred watched as his brother drifted off to sleep and then stored the boxes back onto a shelf before extinguishing the light and climbing up the ladder to the top bunk. He swore when his head hit the ceiling and continued scowling at it through the darkness as he lay on is back.

As the minutes passed he began to wonder if he and George could make it with their joke-shop business, the inventions were tedious and sometimes Fred found himself wondering whether it would be best to just follow what their mother wanted and take jobs at The Ministry.

_No way,_ he told himself, there's_ no fun in a desk job._


	2. Reality

**TWO.**

George pumped his arms in triumph while blood dripped from his nostrils into his open mouth. After a week of hard work the twins had successfully found the remedy for the Nosebleed Nougat. Sometimes, George wondered whether his mother was genuinely ignorant. She had two perfectly capable twins, ready to make a business, and all she wanted them to do was sit at The Ministry filing papers - or fight for the freedom of others - whichever suited her best.

Fred searched through the box to try and find the white candies that would staunch the blood now running swiftly from his nose and down to his mouth. Once his fingers enclosed around the small white tablet he breathed a sigh of relief. They could fuse the sweets together another day, dinner was ready.

"Brilliant!" Fred exclaimed, after washing all the blood off his face, "I wonder what mum's made for dinner." He said casually as he and George made their way downstairs and into the kitchen where as usual their mother was bustling about, preparing for the nights supper.

"Oh, you two -" Mrs. Weasley glanced up from the cook book for a second, her tone did not sound too motherly.

"What a loving greeting mum, it really warms my heart." George laughed, grinning at the scolding look his mother gave him while charmed knives chopped carrots and cut roast on the counter behind her.

"Pigwidgeon has just arrived with a letter addressed to the both of you," she said, pointing over to the sitting room where Pig was hovering above the large grandfather clock - that did not tell the time but merely showed where each member of the Weasley family was – hooting loudly with a scroll of parchment tied hastily to his leg.

Fred snatched the owl and quickly untied Lee's response. He and George had sent him a letter a few weeks ago, asking for a favor. Lee's mother was a Wizards Estate Agent, she sold properties for wizards and witches at the best prices around England and Fred and George were looking for her to help them search for open shops in Diagon Alley.

"Having a great summer … great idea … would love to help … ask my mom … says it'll be okay … come July 26th!" Fred waved the letter in George's face frantically while Mrs. Weasley eyed the boys suspiciously. Combined with the success of finding the correct spell work for their Nosebleed Nougats this news made Fred absolutely blissful.

"Where are you two heading off to?" Mrs. Weasley peering at her sons while plates, forks, knives, goblets sloshing with pumpkin juice and the roast floated lazily out of the kitchen and through the open door out into the backyard.

"Lee's invited us to stay for a few days," George told her, mustering an innocent smile. It would be useless to tell their mother what they were really up to; she would never allow them to leave the house for such a thing.

Mrs. Weasley shrugged and smiled warmly but the smile did not touch her eyes. The boys ignored this, their mother couldn't keep them away from Diagon Alley for long, they'd sneak out if they had to. Despite their love for her, they refused to let her get in the way of their dream.

The twins followed their mother into the backyard where Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all sat at the picnic table waiting for them to join. The sun was just setting which set a peaceful orange glow about the backyard.

"Oh Harry you can take more than that dear, here you go-" Mrs. Weasley spooned a handful of mashed potatoes and carrots on to Harry's plate "- There you go – Ronald, save some for your father and brother will you? Or do you want them to starve?" She sent a dangerous look at her second youngest before magically rationalizing his meal.

"But Harry has more! He's not even your son!" Ron complained, frowning at his plate where his portions of roast, carrots, and potatoes had been cut down generously.

"And he lives with those dreadful Muggles who neglect him of full sized portions daily! Ah, do not argue Ronald or you will starve!" After making sure that Ron would not try to sneak anymore food Mrs. Weasley served herself and began to eat, but she had yet to get more than two slices of roast into her mouth when her eyes turned to the twins who were whispering to Ginny, who sat between them, about their latest success.

"So can we go mum?" George asked, noticing his mothers stare.

Fred looked up expectantly, counting as the seconds went by. Any longer than ten and it was a definite no.

Success. "I supposed ... it couldn't hurt, Mr. and Mrs. Jordan already know?" The twins nodded, slapping each others hands under the table.

*

Fred and George stood before the fireplace, green flames danced about inside, they looked deeply threatening but both of the twins knew that they flames merely tickled instead of burnt.

They hugged their mother, father, Ginny and Hermione (though it was a rather awkward one armed hug) and then gave Ron and Harry very manly handshakes. Apparently the handshakes were so 'manly' that they had Ron rubbing his hand softly afterwards, staring darkly at the back of the twins' heads as they walked towards the fireplace, taking the handle of their trunks and pausing just on the hearth.

"Be good! I don't want any owls from Mrs. Jordan about how troublesome you two are, understood?"

"Us? Troublesome? I think you've got the wrong twins mum." George said, placing a hand over his heart and faking a look of astonishment.

"Yeah mum, when have we ever caused trouble?" Fred asked, as he ruffled up Ron's hair and placed one foot into the roaring flames. "We'll be home in time for Harry's birthday dinner on Thursday."

"Tell Perfect Percy that we said goodbye. On second thought, don't bother. He'll be hearing from us soon enough," George said, winking at Fred who grinned, remembering the 'package' they had owled to Percy at his work. He wished he could be there to see the look on his face when he opened it.

With one last fleeting glance at The Burrow the boys shouted 'Jordan Estates' and one by one were engulfed by the green warmth and into the chute.

Fred and George slid one after the other, their trunks clanging off the grates as they swirled around. They were laughing joyfully as their heads were knocked around and soon they flew out of the fireplace at the Jordan Estates shop and landed on a comfortable midnight blue rug.

The twins stood and looked around the room, it was very businesslike and clean, the walls were white and pictures of vast properties and shops were framed and hung neatly along the walls. A small cough made the boys look round where they saw Mrs. Jordan sitting behind an elegant dark wood desk, her hands were clasped together and dark hair sleeked back into a tight bun.

"Good morning boys," she said a smooth voice and Fred and George glanced warily at each other. Lee's mother was … intimidating, yet neither of them could deny that she was unusually attractive for an older woman. They often teased Lee about this, and questioned him about why he had been neglected of his mother's good looks.

"Good morning Mrs. Jordan." They chorused together and sat down in two midnight blue armchairs that Mrs. Jordan conjured on the other side of her desk.

"How have your holidays been?" She asked, pouring them cups of tea into two saucers out of the steaming kettle that had just appeared. The twins answered and then continued the light conversation with Mrs. Jordan for several minutes until the bell above the door rang in the distance and she excused herself from the desk and disappeared around the corner.

They could hear the muffled voices of Mrs. Jordan and another woman, Mrs. Jordan had to reschedule a meeting with the woman because she was busy. Shortly after the bell had rung again Mrs. Jordan appeared, her red work robes swaying behind her.

"Well boys, I believe that it is time to get down to business. Shall we discuss the matters of what style of shop you are looking for?" She sat down again and removed a folder from a drawer; it was labeled as 'Weasley, Fred and George'. She opened it. There were pictures of four or five shops and a sheet of parchment with neat handwriting written on it.

"Er…aren't we waiting until Lee gets here?" George asked, glancing hopefully at the fireplace, half expecting Lee to come shooting out of it at any moment.

"Oh, my dears no, Lee is at St. Mungo's with his father of course. We will not allow him to abandon his path as a Healer to open a joke shop with you two. Not that it isn't a very practical idea of course, me and Lee's father just have - um - bigger things in mind for Lee." She smiled tightly and Fred found himself clutching the handle of the tea cup so tightly he was sure it would snap. "He seems to be under the impression that he would be assisting you in your dreams, but his father has brought him around." She explained, gazing at them through round dark eyes, "so, how much are you willing to spend?" She asked, her eyes shifting between to the two boys.

"Well – uh – we haven't got much." George muttered, scratching his head, slightly crestfallen that Lee would be unable to join them in their dreams.

"Sickles and Knuts, is all we've got right now, some Galleons of course. But this is pocket money, and as of right now we are only looking of course. We were hoping that we would be able to put a shop on hold until we've managed to come up with the required gold if that's possible?" Fred leaned forward and spoke in a very authoritative tone that reminded George of Percy.

"I could arrange that, but of course I can only put them on hold for so long. If another buyer comes along with the gold then I have no choice but to give the shop over to them." Fred nodded and tapped his fingers on the desk slowly.

"We're looking for a place in Diagon Alley of course, somewhere busy, perhaps by the four corners?" Fred asked gazing down at the sepia toned photos, "if there's any available of course." He added hastily and George nodded.

"Hm, I believe I have just the place. You do not want to look at any of the other shops?" The twins shook their heads as they sipped their cups of tea. "Very well, shall we go then?" The twins stood up hastily and followed Mrs. Jordan out of the office, down a short hall lined with a navy blue rug and out the door into the bustling street of Diagon Alley.

Mrs. Jordan led them up the street to the four corners where Gringotts sat on the far left, Flourish and Blotts on the closest right, Eeylops Own Emporium was to the left of George and a boarded up shop with a large FOR SALE sign floating outside the door stood on the far right.

"Perfect!" The twins said as Mrs. Jordan led them up the stone steps and into the deserted shop. It wasn't as shabby as they expected it to be, in fact, the store seemed to be in perfect condition. Dust was collecting on the register and empty shelves, but the space was vast and there were two levels (not including the flat that was just above the second level) a backroom, and a small lavatory.

"It's brilliant!" George exclaimed as Mrs. Jordan opened the door to the two bed roomed flat. "How much?" He asked after looking out the window and down at the people roaming the streets.

"It's listed for 600 galleons-" Fred moaned and George grimaced. 600 galleons was much more money than they had ever dreamed of having. "- but chances are I can persuade the seller to lower it to 400. They're selling with Profit Estates-" she snorted and shook her head, conjuring up another file and looking at it in mid air. "Yes, Profit Estates would sell this place for 600 galleons. Definitely not worth it I say." She looked skeptically at the flat, tucking the two folders underneath her arm and searching for problems that could bring down the price significantly.

"So…can you put it on hold?" Fred asked all trace of authority gone from his voice. He was nervous now, 600 galleons was a lot of money and what if Mrs. Jordan couldn't lower the price, would they have to find another less suitable shop, or would they have to abandon their dream altogether?

Mrs. Jordan smiled wickedly at the twins; there was a sudden air of confidence surrounding her that wasn't there before. "Of course I can, I haven't been able to found, own and run Jordan Estates, the most successful independently owned Wizard Estate Agency in the wizarding world just with my good looks."


	3. Fortescue's

**THREE**

"Lee, your mother is something else." George muttered as Mrs. Jordan left the room after placing a large breakfast tray on top of Lee's desk, swaying her hips in a way that would make any man gape rudely.

"Shut it alright!" Lee groaned, picking up a sausage off the tray and biting into it. "That's just-" he shuddered glaring dragons at his two best friends who waggled their identical eyebrows at him.

"-She's well fit-"

"-Perfect in fact-"

"-Curvy-"

"-Sexy-"

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Lee yelled, grabbing a stray book and chucking it at Fred who had uttered the last word. Fred ducked under the covers on his cot and giggled relentlessly; Lee rolled his eyes and sat up in his bed greedily taking his plate of food and most of Fred's and began to eat.

After a few hours of eating and fooling around about the home, Lee, Fred and George each stepped into the fireplace in turn, shouted 'Jordan Estates' and wound their way through the connecting path and into Lee's mothers office.

"Excuse me," the twins heard a frantic voice overhead, both lay face down on the navy blue rug while Lee was on top of them. His weight lifted and so did the boys; they stared into the angry brown eyes of Mrs. Jordan. Sitting in a lone blue armchair was a tiny man who resembled Professor Flitwick, he stared at the twins with wide green eyes and a goofy grin.

"Out," she snarled, pointing towards the hallway that led to the door, "I am in a meeting, you'd better hope I don't curse that mouth shut Weasley. Get. Out." The three boys stumbled over their trainers as they ran down the hall and out into Diagon Alley.

"I've changed my mind mate," George wiped sweat off his brow, who knew such an attractive woman could be so scary? "Your mum is downright terrifying." They all laughed carelessly, ignoring the guilty feeling of interrupting Mrs. Jordan's meeting and continued off down the busy alley peering into shops and occasionally greeting some friends from school.

"Care for a visit to old Fortescue's?" Lee asked after Angelina Johnson had just - rather rudely - refused a date with him and stalked off with Katie Bell who looked rather annoyed with her friend. Lee jingled a pocket full of gold and holding open the door to the yellow wallpapered ice cream parlor.

The line was long, it was summer, and it was hot. Many people were aching for the sweet milky sensation of Fortescue's ice cream to chill their throats. Fred and George watched as both he and a young woman served customer after customer until finally they were the only people left in line along with Lee.

"Can I get you boys anything?" The girl's exasperated voice sounded from behind the counter, her hand was supporting her as she leant on the counter watching the ice cold steam rising up from the ice cream bins inside a large wooden freeze.

While Lee and George ordered Fred stared at the girl, there was no doubt that she was any older than he, but … if she was his age how come he didn't recognize her? Surely she would attend Hogwarts if she was a witch, what other magic school in England was there?

A sharp jab in the ribs by George brought Fred out of his thoughts. He refocused his eyes and stared at the petite girl who was smiling politely at him, either completely unfazed by his lack of attention or hiding her impatience very well.

"Are you a witch?" He asked suddenly, George smacked his forehead in embarrassment and sank into a chair beside Lee, holding his ice cream cone in his hand steadily.

The girl laughed, "of course I am." She answered, tucking a strand of dark blond hair behind her ears.

"Do you go to Hogwarts?" He asked again, leaning both elbows onto the blue countertop. When she nodded, he continued. "What house are you in?"

"Hufflepuff," she answered, setting down the ice cream scooper softly.

"Stop being a git Fred," George blurted, Fred turned his head to stare at his twin, "she's in our year, she sat behind us in Potions last year but you were too busy giving Snape pink hair to notice." Fred shot him a dirty look before turning around and looking back at the girl.

"He's right you know," she nodded, smiling up at him, "I'm Adelaide." She stuck out a small sun kissed hand and Fred took it in his own larger pale one and shook softly, amazed at how he could have over looked such a pretty face.

The rest of the day seemed to pass in a haze; Fred saw everything that George saw but his mind was lingering on Adelaide. She'd been sitting behind him all those times in Potions and he couldn't have turned around just once and asked her to borrow some gurdyroot? How could he have been such a git?

"Oi, Fred, come back to us." Fred turned as he, George and Lee lay atop the roof of Lee's house gazing at the stars. Both George and Lee were staring uncertainly at him and after moments of silence, George grinned and smacked his twin on the arm.

"Fred has a crush!" He yelped turning to Lee whose eyes grew wide with shock, then shrunk with glee.

Fred shook his head angrily, "I do not have a _crush_." He wrinkled his nose at the last word. "I've just been thinking about what we should invent next." He lied, turning away from his twin and best friend and gazing at the stars, ignoring their laughter and jokes as they teased him.

So he'd been a little quiet after he officially met Adelaide, it just took him off guard that's all. Imagine not knowing someone was sitting behind you all that time and then finally, one day you see them in a different setting, completely at random and unaware that for years they were always right there just a turn of the head away. She knew who he was, but in his arrogance he'd ignored her, after all she was just a Hufflepuff right? There was nothing remotely special or unique about any of them, they were nice of course, and friendly but there was nothing that set any of them apart from one another. As far as Fred knew, they were all the same and weren't worth getting to know, he shouldn't even be thinking about her know, he should be focussing on their jokes.

But he couldn't forget anything. Her laugh, the feel of her hand, everything was permanently etched in his brain.

-

George stared at Fred through the window to Fortescue's ice cream parlor, and watched him chatting casually with Adelaide. Ever since he'd officially met her he'd been distant, claiming to be preoccupied with thinking of new inventions. Lee may have been able to accept the excuse but George knew better. He knew he shouldn't have been jealous of a girl, but he couldn't help feeling a little green with envy.

His eyes followed Fred as he strolled out of the parlor, a wide smile on his lips and his hands buried deep in his trouser pockets. He shook all envious thoughts out of his mind and pulled his brother close to him by the shoulder, laughing as the boys joked and walked along the busy street just like they had each day prior to this.

"Shall we buy Harry a gift?" George asked as they walked around Quality Quidditch Supplies, examining brooms, Beater bats, and gloves. Fred raised his hand dismissively.

"Mum'll get him something, but does he really need anything else? He's already a famous pig head, don't see why we've got to buy him anything..." Fred's voice trailed off as he smirked at George who stared at him in disbelief. "I'm only joking! Come off it, he saved our sister of course we're going to get him something!" he picked up _Quidditch Through the Ages_ and after gaining George's approval purchased it and left the store.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to your girlfriend?" George spat as the trio walked past Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor on their way back to Lee's mothers work. Adelaide and Mr. Fortescue were visible through the window having a conversation behind the counter. George immediately regretted saying it in such a tone.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Fred defended, turning on the spot and staring at George, his brows furrowed together in anger. "Am I not allowed to try and get to know someone who I hadn't noticed the past six years? I'm not some Slytherin who can just pass up anyone who walks in their path!"

George ignored Lee's feeble attempts to calm Fred down, he could see it in Fred's eyes – a mirror image of his own, literally – that he had triggered a nerve, a sensitive nerve that was rarely triggered by anyone, let alone his own twin.

"Well – you – just -" George sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand. He felt selfish, Fred was allowed to talk to other people, it's not like they were married or anything. "I'm a git, sorry…" he mumbled to his feet and then trudged along the street and back towards Jordan Estates where he and Fred would Floo back to The Burrow.

He felt an arm reach around his shoulder and pull him close; Fred's voice was loud in his ear. "It's all right mate, we'll find you your own bird soon enough!" George glared at Fred who sniggered before climbing the steps into Lee's mothers work shop.

"Goodbye Lee," George said, pulling his friend into a tight embrace, "see you…at the Quidditch World Cup!" George exclaimed, he'd completely forgotten that the World Cup was being hosted in England this year.

"Wouldn't miss it for the prettiest witch in the world mate, see you!" Lee clapped George's back and turned to say goodbye to Fred who was gazing dreamily at Mrs. Jordan who had just kissed him on the cheek.

"Goodbye George," she cooed, kissing him softly on the cheek as well. "I will contact you by owl with news about your shop, okay?" George nodded in a haze and then stepped into the fireplace with Fred at his side and his trunk in his hand.

He watched as the figures of Lee and his mother disappeared and was replaced by the winding chute and grates that led to other fireplaces and soon he sat on his rump in the empty sitting room of his home.

Leaving their trunks sitting in front of the fireplace the twins walked towards the back door and peered through the window. Their whole family sat at two picnic tables, even Bill and Charlie had come home for the occasion. They were all laughing and conversing amongst each other while their mother kept glancing nervously over her shoulder back at the house.

"Reckon she's looking for us?" George asked and Fred nodded, turning the handle on the door and striding out into the backyard and towards the two empty spaces between Bill and Ginny.

"Oh, my dears!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, hopping off the bench and tottering over to where her twins sat and kissing them both on the cheeks, "did you have a good time?" Without waiting for a response she hurried on, "I'm sure you did! Mr. and Mrs. Jordan are very nice people. You're just in time for cake! I'll go and get it!"

The twins grinned as they watched their mother quickly run back into the house and emerge seconds later with a large cake with a photo of Harry, Ron and Hermione embroidered into the icing.

The table burst out into a loud chorus of 'Happy Birthday', which was followed by the twins each taking a handful of cake and smearing it in Harry's face. Their mother gave them disapproving glares before wiping Harry's face clean with a wave of her wand. They grinned sheepishly back at her and took a generous slice of cake each.

"Here you go Harry." George said, holding the small package out to Harry who was heading back inside the house.

"What's this?" He asked, fixing his glasses. The twins rolled their eyes.

"It's your birthday gift, now open it and keep it before we decide to take it back!" Fred told him, laying on is stomach on the grass in the backyard. He and George had pulled out their Puking Pastilles once their mother had gone inside and were going to try and find the remedy for them, once Harry retreated into the house of course.

The door barely had time to close after Harry had gone in when it was opened again. The short stocky frame of their older brother appeared, he walked with a slight confidence and the twins could see a few bandaged fingers on him even from this distance.

"So boys, how've you been?" Charlie asked standing above the twins, there was a bucket sitting in the middle of them and an orange box lay open at George's feet.

George responded by puking violently into the bucket, Fred hastily handed him the orange end of the sweet and George's hand disappeared into the bucket. The retching noises ceased and George pulled his head from the bucket, grinning madly.

"Perfect!" He exclaimed, patting the grass in front of the bucket, "would you like to try? Puking Pastille, you just eat the green end and you begin to vomit…" he paused as Fred chose to demonstrate, plunging his head into the silver bucket, "and then once you've forced the orange end down…" Fred emerged from the bucket, wiping his mouth and nodding as George continued on. "Once you've got the orange end down, the retching ceases and you've got a free period on your hands!" They each bowed their heads to Charlie who was gazing at them with a look that was torn between awe and skepticism.

"You made these?" He asked taking the small sweet between his fingers and sitting cross-legged on the grass. "All by yourselves?"

"Of course we did big brother, we wouldn't dare steal another wizard's idea." Fred said, closing the lid of the small container and then waved his wand and the vile smell of the vomit in the container vanished along with its contents.

"Impressive ... what does mum think of them?" Charlie asked, laying on his back and placing his thick arms underneath his head and glancing at the boys.

Fred and George exchanged glances, their mother wasn't exactly aware of any of the other sweets they were making other than the Ton-Tongue Toffees. They thought it best to keep it quiet from her because they knew that if she got any wind of what they were creating she'd chuck the lot into the rubbish and they'd have to start from scratch.

"Mum doesn't know of them –" George said staring at his older brother whose eyebrows were now raised in shock.

"- And we don't intend on her to find out." Fred's voice was threatening and he pointing his index finger at Charlie. "So don't you go babbling to her about them alright?" Charlie rolled his eyes and nodded.

"It's not like they're going to make you two famous or rich or anything like that."


	4. Potential

**FOUR**

Fred was positively ecstatic, in less than two weeks he and George managed to perfect their whole Skivving Snackboxes set and were now creating more and more boxes and sending them off through an owl order service they had set up using Harry's owl, Hedwig. Fred had forgotten about Adelaide, or tried to at least. At night when he was in the dream-like state before sleep he couldn't stop himself, her eyes would swim into his vision and her laughter would fill his ears. At night, Adelaide was everywhere.

"Oi! C'mere you two, I don't care if you're busy we're playing Quidditch!" Ron yelled from the broom shed, he chucked Fred's and George's Cleansweeps to the ground and then turned to Hermione who was standing with her hands on her hips.

"Honestly Ron, I'm going to fall off my broom! Oh don't give me that look, I am not playing, no Ron!" She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him. Fred and George sniggered as they crept up behind her.

"Too afraid to fly fifty feet in the air then?" George asked, slinking his broom over his shoulder.

"How cowardly of you Hermione, I thought you were a Gryffindor? You know we haven't got any bludgers, only a bewitched – er – what's this called again?" Fred asked Ginny, pointing to the black and white ball with odd shapes all over it.

"A football, it's a Muggle sport ball, we use it as the quaffle, and then this –" she held up a small bright green ball that wiggled feebly in her grasp, "as the bludger, Bill and Charlie enchanted them years ago, brilliant how enchantments last that long isn't it?" Fred and George shrugged in agreement while Hermione glanced at the balls with an approving look on her face.

"Fine," she said flatly, bending down to pick up a broom. "I'll play, but I want one of those." She pointed to the large wooden bat that Fred was now swinging about, he shook his head madly.

"No way, I molded Sheena from a large tree branch George and I found in the woods. No way are you going to take her from me!" He clutched 'Sheena' to his chest and glared at Hermione who stared at him in disbelief.

"Well if you expect me to be a Keeper, or a Chaser you're wrong. I want to be a Beater, so I can hit the balls instead of worrying about catching them, or them hitting me!" She growled, stamping her foot on the floor. Fred raised his eyebrows at George sending the mental message _'Did she really just stamp her foot?'_ George nodded in agreement and they both chuckled with laughter.

"Fine, fine I'll give you mine. I haven't grown too attached to it like my dear brother has." George cocked his head towards Fred who was now hovering above the ground slightly on his broom and organizing the teams with Harry and Ron while gentle stroking 'Sheena'.

Fred stood on the ground below the field where they played Quidditch; it was in the middle of a forest just beyond their property, the trees had been cleared away and six of them had been molded into hoops by Charlie and Bill years ago and now stood at each end of the 'pitch' fifty feet in the air.

"Everyone ready? Remember, we play for the most points, not who catches the snitch first because we haven't got one!" He called up, watching George and Ron take their place in front of the hoops. Hermione shifted slightly and almost fell off her broom but regained balance quickly. Fred threw the tennis ball into the air, and then the soccer ball and then followed them into the air, taking a swing at the tennis ball and sending it rocketing at the back of Harry's head.

The game had begun.

"I wonder what mum's made for dinner." Ginny contemplated as the teens touched back to the ground after the game. Fred's team (which consisted of himself, Ron, and Harry) had lost magnificently to George's team by sixty points before finally Hermione had declared that she'd had enough and claimed that Mrs. Weasley would want them home in time for dinner.

"Dunno," George said, chucking his broom into the shed and strolling towards Ginny. "But you could ask her, she's coming right now…" His voice trailed off as his mother strode across the lawn clutching several large purple envelopes in her hand. He turned to Fred who was staring horrified at his mother now gazing up at them both with an accusing stare. They knew those purple envelops very, very well.

"Did you two think that you could get away with this?" She asked in an unusually calm voice, George had expected her to be yelling and screaming in fury.

"Get away with what?" Fred asked, "We're not doing anything wrong, George when have we ever done anything wrong?" George opened his mouth to speak but was cut off.

"Not – doing – anything – wrong?" Molly repeated through gritted teeth, the other children scurried into the house, too afraid to watch up-front what would happen to the twins.

"Yeah, they're just a few harmless order forms, for business mum you underst-" Fred's explanation was cut off as Mrs. Weasley threw the folders at him.

"I UNDERSTAND? YOU THINK I UNDERSTAND ALL OF – THESE –THE – STUPID PRANKS YOU PLAY ON PEOPLE!"

"They're not stupid!" The twins yelled in unison, clenching their fists.

"OH YES THEY ARE!" Mrs. Weasley roared, her plump face turning redder and redder as the seconds ticked by. "I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS – THIS – DISASTER OF A DREAM TO CONTINUE! YOU ARE – JUST –" She broke off and stood before the twins shaking her head in disapproval, her eyes glistening.

Fred made to pick up the order forms but when he did, they disappeared into ash. He gaped at his mother. "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?" He screamed, kneeling on the grass, George stared at the ash in shock. Had their mother just destroyed their business forms? Yes, she had. How could she do something like that?

"I did what was right!" She said in a voice unlike her own, this voice was cold and mean. "If I see another order form, or Toffee, or any other kind of – of – disasters you two have been fooling around with you regret ever being born!" Mrs. Weasley jabbed her wand in the direction of her two sons before stomping across the yard and into the back door leaving Fred and George kneeling in the rough grass mourning over the loss of their handwritten order forms.

"What are we going to do now?" Fred moaned, trying his hardest not to cry.

* * *

"Brilliant, dad's home with the tickets, bring 'em here dad!" George exclaimed jumping up from his favourite armchair in the sitting room. Their mother was knitting peacefully by the fire, the morning work had been tended too and it was now time for her to relax. Harry, Ron and Hermione had wondered off to the village, Ginny was lounging about on the rug playing with Crookshanks and Fred was sitting by the window tapping the ledge nervously.

"Right you are George!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed as he swooped down to his wife giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Ten box tickets for The Quidditch World Cup!" George wrapped his fingers around the shiny golden ticket stubs emblazed with elegant purple writing.

"Now, now, give them here George. I've got to keep them in a safe place before the match. They can't just keep replacing lost tickets every time someone loses some! Imagine that?" He pondered, sinking into the couch and staring around at his family.

"Fred hun, would you make your father and me a cuppa while you're in there?" Molly didn't need to look up from her knitting to notice that her son was now pacing nervously across the kitchen, his hands pulled behind his back and his eyes glancing every so often at the window.

Fred robotically put the kettle on the stove and waited for it to heat before adding the water to the cups with tea bags and carrying each saucer over to his parents without saying a word. He glanced once and George who moved his head a fraction of an inch down and then back up. The plan was going perfectly.

"Oh, Arthur what is that at the window?" Molly dropped her needles and pointed to the small figure hurtling towards them at top speed. "Arthur … is that Pig?"

Fred held his arm out as Pigwidgeon flew through the window, he missed Fred's outstretched arm and skidded along the length of the table and fell off onto the hardwood floor. Molly shrieked and both Fred and George dived for the owl, Fred scrambled to untie the bright purple folders while George scooped the small owl into his hands before they both sprinted past their parents and up the rickety stairs towards their second floor bedroom.

"OH DAMMIT ARTHUR!" They heard their mother screech as the twins hurtled into their bedrooms. "Did you see what Pig was carrying? The purple folders Arthur! The order forms for their joke items!"

"Honestly Molly, I – sit down," the shuffling of footsteps could be heard and then Arthur's voice followed, "I don't see what's wrong with the twins' jokes. Granted of course they may do more harm than good at first but I can only imagine what they're creating and I have faith in them. All those items required a vast understanding of magic, you cannot deny that Molly. Our twins are smart - they may not have many OWL's to prove it but they are Molly! You must see that."

"But Arthur, what if they fail? What if by the time they've finished school they still haven't gone anywhere? We can't just keep them here forever!"

"Molly, I'm certain that they will be successful in whatever career they choose. Please, just give them a chance, they are very clever boys."

"Smart boys, did you just call them smart? They only got three OWLs each! What happened with them? Bill, Charlie, and Percy they were all smart and respectful … I don't understand …" Fred closed the door softly and turned to his brother who was leaning against the back wall with his arms crossed.

"Are we stupid?" Fred whispered, sinking onto the rug and frowning. How could a mother say such a thing about her sons?

"No." George answered, staring out the window. "We're not; mum just hasn't seen our full potential yet."

"What if we haven't got any … you know potential?" Fred asked quietly, staring up into the eyes of his brother who stared back. George knew that this was one of the moments where Fred actually thought about what he said; it was times like these when Fred showed his emotions.

"We do, we just haven't shown anyone yet."


	5. Zonoko's Dream

**FIVE**

"Honestly Fred, do we have to wake up before everyone else? I mean-" George yawned, "-we're only going to Diagon Alley – oofh – ouch quit it." George whined rubbing the back of his head at the spot where Fred had just hit him. It was eight o'clock in the morning and he and Fred were going to Diagon Alley for two things, one of which George was in the dark about. The other was to visit Mrs. Jordan, she had sent a letter by owl informing them that she would like to meet with them as soon as possible. Fred had written a response back, letting her know that they would come by the following morning.

-

"Please remind me never to agree to early morning meetings…" George grumbled as he climbed off the hearth and sank into a lovely midnight blue armchair in Mrs. Jordan's office.

"Good morning boys!" Mrs. Jordan sang as she stepped out of a doorway leading to what George presumed to be a lavatory. "Would you like something to eat?" She gestured to the tray of scrambled eggs and hash browns that had just appeared on the table.

"Mmmm…" George's stomach was grumbling, Fred had just dragged him out of bed without offering any food to him, he needed to eat. Just as George went to grab a hasbrown, long pale, freckled fingers that matched his own enclosed around his fist and gently lowered his arm away from the tray.

"No thank you, we're only here for a short time, we've got to get back home before our mother notices that we've gone." Fred said, ignoring George's glares.

Mrs. Jordan shrugged and then opened their file folder, scanning the parchment and photographs that were littered about inside. "Well, Mr. Weasley, everything is in order, your shop is being taken off the market as we speak. Nobody will be able to enter with the enchantments I have had placed on it. The only matter we have to discuss is your payment, I've managed to persuade the seller to get it down to 400 galleons. Though, if you give me more time perhaps I can get it even lower," Her voice trailed off and she gazed at them both through thick lashes. George felt grateful that Mrs. Jordan was very good at what she did, he would throw in an extra hundred galleons for her hard work.

"Do not fret m'lady," Fred winked and dug inside the pockets of his robes. "Aha!" He exclaimed after a few minutes, he extracted his hand and placed a small sack of gold onto the desk with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Fred what the-?" George began and then cut himself off, he remembered where this gold was from. Their mother had thought that she'd destroyed all of their order forms but she hadn't, the boys had a few left under their beds which they copied and began to send out to all their friends. Several came back with galleons looking for their canary creams, and skiving snackboxes, business was booming in a sense.

"Sixty eight galleons, six sickles and two knuts," Fred said proudly as he nudged the bag towards Mrs. Jordan whose face was impossible to read. "Go on have a look. I haven't cursed it or anything." George watched as she dumped the contents of the bag onto the desk and shifted through them with agile fingers.

"Very well," she said, transferring the gold back into the bag and looking at the twins. "Is that all?" They nodded. "It was a pleasure to see you boys, I do hope to see you soon." She shook their hands; George pulled her delicate hand to his lips and kissed the top of it softly.

"It was a pleasure seeing you too." He said before turning and following his brother out of the shop and into Diagon Alley.

"Where to now brother?" George asked casually as they strolled through the streets littered with mothers and young children.

"Don't fret, Forge, it'll be quick." Fred winked as he stopped in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and then walked inside, the bell atop of the frame ringing as the door opened.

* * *

As Fred stepped into the chilly parlor he heard loud angry voices coming from the flat above, he tried not to listen as he looked at photographs on the walls of the shop when it first opened but he couldn't help over hearing what was going on upstairs.

"YOU CANNOT JUST COME HERE AND TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME! YOU LEFT US WHEN SHE WAS SEVEN! HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOUR SCARLET FACE HERE EXPECTING FORGIVENESS!" This voice was deep; Fred had no doubt that it was Mr. Fortescue.

"You lie Florean! I wanted you and Adelaide to come to Bulgaria with me but you refused! You wanted to steal Adelaide away from me, you wanted to raise her as your own but I am here to bring her back to her rightful home!" This voice belonged to a woman, and though she did not yell like Florean, it was still full of anger.

"Preposterous, I will not let my daughter grow up in a broken home! You and that – that man will have nothing to do with my daughter anymore!" Fred fiddled with his hands, trying to find a distraction in the room and he did – Adelaide had just slipped through a door behind the counter and closed it behind her, muffling the voices above.

"Oh," she wiped her red-rimmed eyes and blinked a few times. "I didn't hear the bell go…" She sniffed and Fred silently cursed himself for coming in.

"Yeah well, they're giving giants a run for their money aren't they?" Fred laughed half-heartedly and Adelaide smiled, rubbing the back of her neck.

"What can I get you?" She asked after a loud crash made her jump.

"Oh, I'm not here for ice cream, I just wanted to ask you something." Fred said, walking over to the bar and wincing as another crash sounded from up above. Adelaide nodded and Fred opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH ROSE!" Mr. Fortescue came bounding out of the door behind the counter followed by a tall woman whose eyes were boring into the back of Florean's head. She followed him from behind the counter but stopped dead in her tracks when he opened the door that led out to Diagon Alley.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Leave, now." Mr. Fortescue snarled his eyes narrowed as he glared at the woman.

"Adelaide, please, come with me!" The woman brushed past Fred and took Adelaide's hands in her own. Adelaide looked between her father and the woman, her eyes were wide with confusion and terror and as they locked with Fred's he saw tears forming again.

"S-stop – no – I – don't." Adelaide shook her head vigorously and Fred bounded towards the counter, one hand on the woman's shoulder and the other on her wrists.

"Ma-am, hey, let go of her. She doesn't want to go – oi watch it!" Fred rubbed his cheek where the woman had just slapped him.

She turned back towards Adelaide who now had her wand pointed in front of her, her hand was shaking and tears were still falling from her eyes.

"G-go h-home m-m-mom or I'll – I'll hex y-you!"

The woman – Adelaide's mother – stared horrified at her wand which Fred found surprising. Surely she would pull out her own wand and dismiss Adelaide for ever threatening her. But that did not happen; she merely stammered and gawked at her daughter.

"Y-you wouldn't dare use such a t-thing on your – your own mother?" Adelaide nodded slowly and her mother burst into tears. Mr. Fortescue let out a great sigh, hobbled over to Adelaide's mother, linked his thick arm through her thin one and apparated away.

The parlor was silent; Fred was debating whether or not he should make a joke and Adelaide was staring unblinkingly at the spot where her father and mother had vanished. He decided against cracking a joke, he knew that when it came to girls and dysfunctional families they did not cope well with light hearted humor.

"Are you alright?" Fred asked, leaping over the counter and standing with his hands in his robe pockets, fiddling with his wand. Adelaide nodded slowly and looked up at him, forcing a smile to her lips.

"I've been through worse," she mumbled, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear and looking down at her trainers. "So, uhm, you came here to ask me something? What was it you wanted to know?"

"What – oh – yeah – right … I just wanted to know if you were going to the Quidditch World Cup?" He asked, watching her anxiously.

"Of course I am!" She laughed, traces of tears still etched onto her cheeks. "What kind of sodding witch do you think I am? It would be a downright shame if I didn't go!" Fred smirked, wiping his sweaty hands on his robes – why was he sweating in the first place? Surely he couldn't be nervous, Fred Weasley was never nervous.

"Brilliant – well, I better be off then. I'll see you there?" He backed out from the counter and to the door, offering Adelaide a small wave before going to go look for George.

* * *

"Shh…don't want to wake up the Horntail before she's ready." George whispered as he and Fred stumbled out of the fireplace rather loudly and stood up, surveying the room for any sign of life.

"Don't want to wake up the Horntail? Hmph, she's woken up herself." Fred and George stared into each other's wide eyes as their mother came slowly down the stairs, wiping her hands on her apron. "Think you're clever don't you? Sneaking off before mummy's awake! What if something happened to you?"

"But mum, we only went to Diagon Alley!" George whined.

"And what business do you have there! You have no gold to spend! You've yet to receive your book lists from Hogwarts for what you need! What has such importance that you need to Floo off to London in the early hours of the morning without a note, or without parental supervision?" Mrs. Weasley roared, her face turning as red as her hair.

"We were just meeting Lee –"

"Could you not have owled him? Or waited to see him at the Quidditch World Cup?"

"It was urgent-"

"Morning love," Mr. Weasley said groggily, rubbing his eyes and kissing his wife on the cheek. "Oh, morning boys didn't expect you to be up at this time." The twins nodded to their father and followed him to the kitchen where their mother began to cook breakfast; she seemed to have forgotten about where the twins had gone until she set their plates in front of each of them giving them scornful looks.

The twins knew that the matter of them leaving for Diagon Alley would not soon be forgotten.

* * *

"Blimey, I bet mum wished we were just like Percy. Off doing work at The Ministry every bloody day of the week, shut up in our rooms when we're home, keepin' out of trouble. It's Gobshite." Fred grumbled angrily as he climbed onto his bunk and pushing away the home knitted blanket. He did not want comfort from something that came from a mother who only wanted to crush his dreams rather than encourage them.

"Yeah…but I mean she only wants the best for us, right?" George countered, playing with the frayed bits of his own blanket. He loved his mother but had to agree with Fred, why was she so determined to ruin what they really wanted in life?

Fred scoffed and rolled to one side, staring at a picture of him and George with Zonoko in Hogsmeade. Lee had taken the picture with that Creevy boy's camera in their fourth year. As he stared at himself, George and Zonoko each holding bright purple bags from the store he remembered something that Zonoko had told him and George that day…

"_Now you two, c'mere for a few, now one day when you two are older 'n finished with Hogwarts 'n your education I want yeh both to come down to my shop and I'll get yeh started on your shop. Yeh that's right, because you know what? One day I'll be gone, 'n my shop'll be gone and those two fools Gambol and Japes'll have a run for their money when you two start up shop. Y'hear? I want you two to be the best damn shop runners to date! Don' be afraid of no competition boys, you two'll inspire many other troublemakers to come!" _

And so Fred believed it, Fred promised himself and Zonoko that he and George would be the greatest troublemaking twins there was. They would open up shop and run neck and neck with Gambol and Japes, and then Fred and George would go visit Zonoko – wherever he was – and they'd celebrate.

Fred was determined to make Zonoko happy, he would do whatever it took to fulfill not only his dream, but the dream of his twin, and the dream of Zonoko.


	6. Gambling

**SIX**

"It's so close-"

"-I can almost _feel_ the wind rushing past me, as Krum flies by searching for the snitch-"

"- It'll be brilliant won't it? Seeing him actually play, up close, d'you think he'll sign autographs?" George asked as he and Fred sat across from each other packaging orders together for the students from Hogwarts. Their mother had left them alone about their business with their jokes although she did glare at them suspiciously when they descended from their room after spending hours up there working on their projects.

"What've you got a crush on Krum? This is cute…" Fred joked, sending Hermes (taken from Percy's room while he was at work) out the window with a package that although it looked small on the outside contained ten Skiving Snackboxes inside.

George rolled his eyes and leaned against the large shelving unit that occupied the wall behind him. "Well, brother, what shall we invent next?" He asked, dodging the question about Krum – of course he didn't have a crush on him, what a ridiculous assumption. But then again, it was Fred, it was almost expected of him to say that.

Fred smirked, "oh brother, I'm one step ahead of you." Fred stuck his arm underneath the bunk, his hand throwing old sweets and discarded wrappers away, once or twice it fell upon a heavy school book, until finally he pulled out a tin can – two tin cans – attached on a string.

"Muggle inventions," George scoffed, taking one of the tin cans in his hand and examining it. "Did you take this from dad's workshop?" Fred nodded, taking the other tin can and reeling the string out behind him as he walked through the doorway and out of sight.

Moment later George heard a muffled sound coming from the tin can; reluctantly he placed it to his ear.

"Well – impor – don't – name – drea – scar – Vol – DON'T –" George look around the empty room, those voices definitely belonged to Harry and Ron, but it was hard to tell what they were talking about … not that George cared really, sure Harry was a brother to him and he did rather enjoy eavesdropping on his conversations from time to time, he still felt a tad rude when he did.

Thundering footsteps sounded as Fred bounded into the room, the can trailing behind him, rattling on the wooden floor.

"See?" He said, sinking onto the floor below him. "These are useless!" It took George a few seconds until he finally clued in on what Fred was getting at.

"So if we somehow improved them –"

"- Sort of, maybe … erm –'

"- Ears! – yeah ears – if we transfigured something into an ear –"

"- Then made it stretchy, it could stretch a few feet, miles if we're lucky –"

"- You'd be able to hear what's goin on instead of having to use these ruddy things!" George exclaimed, tossing the useless listening device aside.

"Say it – go on, I know you're thinking it because I'm thinking it as well." Fred said, grinning at his twin who was grinning back.

"We're bloody brilliant."

* * *

The following Monday morning brought the arrival of the Quidditch World Cup. Fred and George were snoozing soundly in their sleep, their home knitted blankets wrapped snugly around them and their mouths hanging open in the same fashion when the door opened quietly and their father stood in the doorway looking to each of his sons and smiling pleasantly.

"UP, NOW BOYS WE'VE GOT NO TIME TO WASTE! YOUR BAGS ARE DOWNSTAIRS WAITING FOR YOU LETS _GO_!" Their father yelled, sending their blankets off of them with a wave of his wand.

The sudden blast of cold woke both Fred and George in an instant, curling up into balls in their skivvies they muttered darkly under their breath until their father left to wake up the other children. They were excited to attend the World Cup, but waking up before the sun had time to rise was dampening their spirits.

"What's the time?" Fred asked, nearly falling off his bed as he climbed down the ladder to dress. George didn't answer but merely followed in Fred's wake, pulling on trousers a jumper, and socks before shuffling out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen where their mother waited to bid them goodbye.

"Mornin' mum," they grumbled in unison, hoisting their rucksacks atop their backs and rolling their eyes as Molly kissed both on the cheek.

"Here's some toast for the walk, have fun!" She followed them to the door and gave her husband one last kiss before watching her family walk in the direction of the now rising sun.

"Oh bloody hell this is ridiculous!" Fred whined as he and George brought up the rear of the trudging teens walking through vast expanses of greenery. They had been walking for what felt like ages, his legs were beginning to numb and his nose was cold.

"DAD!" George yelped, cupping a hand to the side of his mouth for extra volume, "HOW MUCH LONGER?"

But Mr. Weasley did not hear his son, for he was joining in conversation with two men. One tall and balding slightly, and the other just as tall but with a full set of hair, the twins groaned. It was Cedric Diggory.

"Ugh, that bloke I swear … one more time he puts us in for detention I'll slip him a puking pastille, yeah then he won't know what's gotten into him …" Fred muttered darkly as they came to a stop just outside a thicket of trees. Mr. Diggory was talking boisterously with their father and Cedric was standing peacefully with his hands in his pockets gazing at the sky.

"Oho! Harry Potter!" Mr. Diggory exclaimed, turning on Harry who gazed bleary eyed back at the man now vigorously shaking his hand.

"Hello," The twins turned and saw Cedric waving a hand at them, "how've you been?" He asked, as if he'd completely forgotten the time when he had ruined their prank on Filch only a year earlier. Fred scowled and George waved half heartedly back, grumbling a 'hello' and 'fine'.

"Well now, let us keep going! Just up the hill now!" Cedric fell into step with the twins, attempting to make conversation. The twins did not comply, hoping that Cedric would take the hint, he didn't, but being a Hufflepuff neither Fred nor George had expected anything less of him.

"What's this?" They heard Harry ask, and then their father explain to him that it was a Portkey. The twins already had their hand clutching the two laces when it finally glowed blue and pulled them by the navel off of the hill and into – well they really didn't know where they were during the time it took them to travel from one place to another.

"Ouch, bloody hell," George groaned, rubbing the back of his head. "He would know how to land properly…" he grumbled as Cedric came gliding down from the sky looking like some sort of angel.

They scowled and ignored Cedric's helping hand, pushing themselves off the ground with their hands and joining their father who was now conversing with two wizards who did not look very pleased. The twins only caught snippets of the conversation; they followed their father and Mr. Diggory across the moor towards a small hut where they paid in muggle money for their campsite.

"Well, I'll see you at school then," Cedric said, waving to the twins before turning and walking off with his father in the opposite direction of where the Weasley's were headed.

"Yeah I'll see you at school; you'll be lucky if I don't shove your head in the loo the next time you try and stop our pranks…" Fred muttered, glaring at the back of Cedric's head as he followed his father through the crowded tents.

"Hmph, not bad," George admired the inside of the tent, and ran over to claim a bed in the back. He didn't know what he'd do without magic.

"Ahh," he heard Fred from the cot beside him, "let's just sleep forever." He mumbled into the pillow, George agreed with him silently and began to nod off.

It seemed that seconds later a booming voice woke them from their lie-in, squinty eyed they emerged from the bedroom to find a tall, burly man standing in the midst of their tent, raving over Harry.

Fred and George sat at a table just outside the kitchen, pulling out their merchandise from their rucksacks and tweaking them slightly. They couldn't chance leaving their possessions at their house with their mother, she was probably in their room at the moment searching for any remnants of the joke items she could find to destroy them. But there would be none, and her search would be unsuccessful.

"Oho, what have we got here boys?" The man – who the twins had heard their father refer to as Mr. Bagman – walked over and plucked a fake wand from out of George's hand. "Did you make this yourself?" The twins nodded, and quickly pulled out a Skiving Snackbox, placing it onto the table.

"We're starting our own line of joke products," Fred explained, gesturing to the trick wand and the Snackbox.

"Very entrepreneurial of you two, five galleons these are worth I'd say." He put the wand back onto the table, "and this? Some sort of sweets I believe…" he picked up a Fainting Fancy and eyed it carefully, hesitating before as he brought it to his mouth, and then as though something made him distrust the twins, he lowered the sweet and asked, "what does it do?"

George launched into the description of the sweet, and then briefly explained each of the others abilities. Mr. Bagman took his word for it, and placed the small sweet back into the box.

"You two are well on your way … yes definitely. I can place you with some contacts at the Ministry, they may be able to help you even more," he winked at them and then strolled casually around the tent.

"Who do you reckon will win the match?" He asked the room, Fred and George were first to answer.

"I think Ireland will win-'

"- But Krum'll catch the snitch."

"How much are you willing to bet?" Mr. Bagman questioned, leering at the twins while they dug into their pockets, pulling out the loose gold they were not using to save up for the shop.

"Thirty-seven galleons, fifteen sickles, and three knuts," Fred said proudly, extending a hand to Bagman who pocketed the gold with one swift movement, winking at the boys and leaving the tent.

* * *

"I've heard that that Bagman character has a bad history of gambling," Hermione said as the twins walked alongside her, Harry and Ron as they walked through the collection of tents for some water. Fred and George had merely tagged along to get away from Percy, who had taken any silent moment as a moment wasted to tell them about his job at the Ministry.

"Well, me and Forge are persistent are we not? He'll never hear the end of it if he doesn't pay us back…" Fred said threateningly, watching a little boy on a broomstick fly into the side of his tent.

"Oi, Gred," George slapped at Fred's torso, "isn't that Adelaide Fortescue…?" He asked, pointing to the tent just behind the one where the little boy was now purposely crashing into the tent, on his broom, gleefully laughing every time he dropped the few inches onto the grass.

Fred looked up, and sure enough, Adelaide was standing outside her tent, talking to her father. When her father disappeared, he revealed something that created a monster inside of Fred's chest.


	7. The Monster

**SEVEN**

Fred's jaw tightened and he clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly until he could feel his nails making indents in his palms. Adelaide threw her head back in a fit of laughter, Fred could imagine the way the breath escaped her lips, and he wished that it was he who was making such a beautiful sound. But it wasn't. It was Diggory.

Fred didn't notice that Harry, Hermione and Ron had disappeared with the water; his brown eyes were focused on Adelaide and Cedric, he wished that the image of the tall golden haired boy would just disappear. But it didn't. Cedric was still there, touching her, embracing her. Cedric's hands were on her waist, hers on his neck, and now they were kissing.

Fred almost kicked the little boy.

* * *

"Can you believe it? Did you see his hands all over her? ARGH!" Fred kicked at the trunk of a tree as they made their way to the stadium. Night had fallen and the stars were shining brightly up above, but their light was replaced by lanterns of green and red that floated lazily in the air, lining the pathway to the stadium.

Fred had been seething with anger ever since he saw Adelaide kiss Cedric. Not that he liked her or anything – okay, he had had a crush on her but he wasn't used to this feeling. It was … rejection, but indirect rejection. He was usually the one to reject a girl, and in a way, because Adelaide had dodged around the fact that she was dating Cedric, she had rejected any future chance at a relationship with Fred.

"C'mon mate," George said as they climbed the purple carpeted stairs to the top box, "there's other birds out there. Better ones. What kind of girl would want to date Diggory anyway? He's a sodding git that's what he is." Fred grumbled and hunched over in his chair like a little tyke who'd just been told he couldn't go to Honeydukes. George was supposed to say these words of comfort, he was Fred's brother – Fred's_ twin_ – what else would he have said?

Fred sat grumpily as the rest of the family and occupants of the box filed into their seats. He didn't take his eyes off the field until he felt someone sit down beside him, when he turned to see who it was he wished he had stayed on the cot like he had threatened to do.

"Oh, hello Fred," Cedric said pleasantly, extending a hand which Fred merely scowled at. "George," Cedric greeted, waving with the hand Fred had refused to shake. George said nothing; it was a part of the brotherly code to ignore the bloke who had stolen a brother's girl (though technically Cedric hadn't stolen Adelaide, but George was willing to overlook that).

"Fred!" Adelaide squealed from beside Cedric, "What brilliant seats these are, aren't they?" Fred grunted something incoherent, and George could over hear some colourful words that Fred murmured under his breath that he would never dare say in front of their mother.

"Uhm … so are you two having fun?" She asked awkwardly, glancing uneasily at Fred who had taken a sudden interest in his trainers.

"Er – yeah – it's uh, been fun…" George answered, wishing that he was anywhere but there.

George was very grateful that Adelaide was one of the few girls who knew when to be quiet, and he wondered whether she could see in Fred's eyes that he was angry with her, or if she was ignorant to the sudden tension that settled over the four of them.

Soon, the match had begun, and while George seemed to forget that Adelaide and Cedric were there, Fred did not. Every move Cedric made he could feel, every time Adelaide laughed echoed in his ears, and every time he heard snippets of Cedric whispering to Adelaide he felt a monster growing inside his chest. Fred wished he could Apparate, because he would have been back home with his mother if he could.

Fred listened to the commentary but couldn't quite hear it, he was listening to the monster growling about Cedric, providing Fred with daring tricks and pranks to pull on him once the school year began.

However preoccupied he was, he managed to notice the woman from the parlor enter the box, it was Adelaide's mum, her arm was gingerly hanging off the crook a tall Bulgarian man's elbow, they sat directly behind him and George along with a girl about his age who looked thoroughly displeased to be there.

"Oh, Mr. Dimitrov, such a pleasure to see you here," Mr. Malfoy greeted the man, locking their hands together. "And this is your wife?" He asked, taking the gloved hand of the woman and bringing it to his lips (Narcissa's eyes darkened menacingly), "and your daughter?" He acknowledged the young girl with a leering look before turning to his own son.

"Do you know this young lady Draco?" He asked, indicating the girl with a tilt of his head.

"Yes father," Malfoy said quietly, nodding to the girl who scowled back, "she in her sixth year and in Ravenclaw."

"Oh," Mr. Malfoy sounded disappointed, but recovered quickly. "Well, no matter, we should have dinner together sometime, before the young ones go back to Hogwarts. How does that sound?"

"Very … tempting," Mr. Dimitrov said in a thick Bulgarian accent. "But haff been very busy lately, now, I vont to votch the match." He said, turning away from Mr. Malfoy and towards the field where the Irish had just scored for a third time.

"Mother?" Adelaide's tentative voice rang through Fred's ears and he glanced at her, she was staring up at her mother, her mouth hanging open slightly.

Her mother did not show any sign of noticing her, but the younger girl did. She turned her head; green eyes blazing as they met Adelaide's honey coloured ones. She scowled at her before redirecting her gaze towards the match.

Adelaide was frozen for a few seconds before she recollected herself, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. She met Fred's gaze but then looked away when Cedric looked at her, placing a hand on her cheek, he was completely oblivious to the whole scene that had just happened. The monster roared in disbelief, Cedric must have been really daft, or chose to ignore the cold greeting between Adelaide and her mother. Had Fred been sitting with her, he would have distracted her, or comforted her instead of commenting about the match.

When the match had ended, and the occupants of the box were all filing out; Fred pretended to tie his trainer so that he would not have to face Adelaide or Cedric.

"Oh, sorry miss," George apologized looking down at the face of the girl whose trainers he had just trodden on. The girl scowled, just as she had before, and it was a face George recognized but the name seemed to have walked out of his mind.

"Just try not to tread on my foot again, thank you." She said, turning away from him and walking down the stairs and out of sight.

"Get on the wrong _foot_ with her?" Fred joked from behind him. George laughed, erasing the image of the scowling raven haired girl from his mind and enjoying his now smiling brother.

* * *

"Oi, Fred!" George called as Fred left the tent and began walking towards where the Irish had their tents set up. Loud cheers could be heard, followed by the clinking of glasses and slurred words to a song in an unrecognizable language. "Where you off to?" He fell into step with his twin as they walked through the crowd of celebrating Irish men and women and children.

"Just – uh – goingtotalktoAdelaide," the last words were rushed together and Fred looked off into the distance to avoid his brothers disapproving eyes.

"You're _what_?" George stopped in his tracks, nearly knocking over a celebrating Seamus Finnigan who had run by, waving his shamrock hat wildly above his head. "You're actually going to go see that – that – _she's dating Diggory_!"

Fred shook his head fiercely. Despite being a twin, George just wouldn't understand even if he tried to explain it to him. Fred himself couldn't even comprehend why he was going to speak to Adelaide, he just was. He needed to get this out into the open, or else the monster would consume him, and he wasn't sure what would happen if it did.

"Just…just go back to the tent alright? I'll be back soon…" Fred began to walk again, he could see Adelaide's tent now, old Fortescue standing beside it had made it hard not to, for he was cheering wildly, his stubby arms over his head as he talked to a shadowy figure.

"No bloody way!" George reached out to grab Fred's arm, forcing him to stop and look. "This girl is making you mental!" George yelled in spite of himself. Didn't Fred get it? Didn't he realize that Adelaide wasn't worth his time?

For what seemed like hours but was really only a few fleeting seconds Fred and George stood in the middle of the swarm of tents, drunken Irishmen sung merrily about them and children were pulled into the tents and tucked in for bed, but neither Fred nor George noticed these things. All they could see was each other: Fred staring at George like he'd never seen him before, and George waiting impatiently for his twin to say something, waiting for Fred to come back to reality.

And then Fred did something that blew George off his rocker.

He walked away.


	8. The World Cup

Well, I'm not too happy with this chapter, mainly the ending. Mostly canon stuff, sorry if it's too long I couldn't find a good spot to end it at, hopefully the next chapter will be much better!

* * *

**EIGHT**

George stood, immobile, watching Fred's retreating back disappear into the night, his mouth hung open and he turned from side to side trying to find someone to revel in his disbelief with. No one was there, except for the Irishmen who sat atop stools, their mugs clenched tightly in their hands as if they would float away if they loosened their grip.

George didn't feel like going back to the tent, no definitely not. He'd be subjected to questions about where Fred had gone off to. George didn't feel like talking about Fred, especially about how he'd just left him, _for a girl_.

Struggling to accept this ridiculous circumstance that Fred had put him in, he wandered about, not seeing anything except for the darkening sky. He meandered through the tents until he was near the edge of the forest, it was dark except for the red and green shimmers of light the lanterns provided.

"Now really, wandering all alone through the trees when something terrible is going on? I thought you were smarter than that George Weasley."

* * *

Fred stormed away from his twin, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. George really had struck a nerve, just like he had in Diagon Alley when he had called Adelaide his girlfriend.

Fred and George had fought before, Fred wouldn't even consider it fighting, and it was harmless bickering, never yelling. All siblings fought, and even though they were twins they had disagreements from time to time. But Fred had never stormed away in a fit of rage, but he was unable to wrap his head around the fact that George had accused him of going mental over a girl that he couldn't bear staying by his side for another moment.

"Fred?" Fred hadn't realized that he had been standing out front of Adelaide's tent for several minutes. She was pulling a light blue jumper over her head, the air had become chilly. "What're you doing here?"

"I just …" Fred also hadn't any idea what he was going to say to her. He knew why he'd come, but how do you bring up the fact that you can't stand the bloke she's dating? "Did you enjoy the match?" He finally asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"Yeah, it was brilliant…" Her voice was low and she looked at her trainers when she spoke, as if she was ashamed of something.

They had begun to walk now; they passed Mr. Fortescue who was talking animatedly with a short woman who didn't seem to be paying the slightest bit attention to him, and a group of young adults smoking something, causing a mysterious blue smoke to rise up into the darkness.

"Do you play?" Fred asked.

"Oh heavens no, Cedric says its good fun but … I don't know…" She had to bring up Diggory. Fred said nothing but merely began to drag his feet along the grass; he felt the monster roar inside of him at the mention of Cedric.

Fred's elongated silence seemed to encourage Adelaide to change the subject, "why were you standing out front of my tent? Did you want to ask me something?"

"Er – yeah I did actually," Fred paused, trying to ignore the rude phrases he would like to use in describing his hatred for Diggory. "So you're going with Diggory?" He finally managed to spit out, "how come you never told me?" He asked, looking down at her. She wasn't looking at him, but her eyes were instead focused at a spot above Fred's shoulder.

"I didn't want to hurt you." She said, holding onto his arm to bring him to a stop in front of a large group of sulking Bulgarians. "I mean, you were chatting me up and weren't being very subtle about it. I didn't want to ruin it by telling you that I was with someone already."

"You wouldn't have hurt me," he smirked, "I'm invincible."

Adelaide's soft laughter turned into a shriek of horror, a shriek that melted in with the others that erupted from the people around them. Fred felt Adelaide crash into his chest, her shoulders shaking and her arm pointing towards the sky.

Black cloaked figures, all with their wands pointing into the air at a sickening sight of a man, wife and child floating eerily above, were advancing quickly to the spot where Fred stood frozen with Adelaide enclosed in his arms.

Fred's immediate thought was not of protecting Adelaide – though he did clue in fairly quickly that the least he should do was protect her, – he thought of his family. Being the largest blood traitor family in the England they weren't exactly safe from the wrath of the Death Eaters.

More importantly, he thought of George.

* * *

"Who-" George began but then stopped himself, how could he have been so daft? "Evelyn Dimitrov," he grumbled. Evelyn was a sixth year Ravenclaw Prefect, and a running candidate for the most stuck up bird George had ever met. He lost count the week after she'd gotten her Prefect badge at how many times she'd landed him and Fred in detention.

Prefects were the twins' mortal enemies.

"Bravo, you remembered my name. 10 points to Gryffindor I think?" She sniggered. Apart from being stuck up, she had a blunt rudeness about her that was rather annoying.

"Yeah, well, it would be hard to forget your name. You've been sneaking up on Fred and I ever since you got that bloody badge. I thought you had a crush on us for a bit there." He winked and she scowled, under the glow of red light George noticed her pale skin flush.

"As if I'd ever have a crush on a _Weasley_, do not flatter yourself." She growled, leaning back against the tree.

George ignored her, debating whether he should leave her alone or stay. As he weighed the pros and con's of the situations screams erupted from around him and he looked out into the sea of tents.

Barely visible meters away were a large group of black cloaked figures, all with their wands pointed at the same spot above them. Three figures, presumably a family, were floating in mid-air, suspended by the spells of those beneath them.

George stared at the sight unable to look away, he barely registered the slight tug on his arm, he'd just remembered something. Fred. Fred was out there, what if – what if? George couldn't bring himself to think it, and he let Evelyn's hand guide him deeper into the forest.

"Let go…" he mumbled, tugging his arm out of her grasp as she lit her wand.

"Oh so sorry," she snapped, illuminating her face, "I was only trying to get you away from the Death Eaters. I would have been safe – you on the other hand…" she trailed off, green eyes scrutinizing George's freckled face.

He paced back and forth between two trees, running his hands through his hair, tightening his grip on his wand, but nothing could quench his nervousness. Not only was he worried about Fred, he was worried about the rest of his family, and Harry and Hermione.

"Quit it!" Evelyn snapped, getting up from her place on a stump. "You're making me dizzy walking around like that."

"Gee Evelyn, I'm terribly sorry to ruin your time but in case you've somehow forgotten there are Death Eaters out there! My family is out there, and unlike your family, we are not safe! So don't tell me that I'm making you dizzy! Don't tell me anything, anything at all!" George yelled, pointing a threatening finger at Evelyn whose face was impassive.

Evelyn said nothing, which surprised George.

George heard people running into the forest, frantic cries for missing family members, and yelps of pain as someone ran into a tree or a branch. No voices called for George; neither did he recognize any of them as anyone he knew.

Brilliant.

* * *

"Adelaide come on!" Fred yelled back to her as he ran towards the forest, his hand was clutching hers and it was sweating badly.

Death Eaters? Here? Why? Why would they want to ruin such a thing? If Fred ever got a chance to fight with them wandless he wouldn't hesitate to knock in their thick skulls.

"Fred-" Adelaide panted, her hand slipping from his. He turned around, they were in the forest now, the cries and shouts were not as loud now and Fred could barely see his hand in front of him. He lit his wand and held it high over his head.

Adelaide was bent over, hands on her knees, gasping for breath. She looked up when the light spilled over her frame.

"Fred – sorry – don't – run," she sank onto the grass and buried her head in her hands. No sooner had she done this, Fred began to hear muffled sobs.

"What's got you in this right state?" Fred asked, crouching down beside Adelaide. "We're safe, listen; they won't bother to come in here." He rubbed her shoulder, and watched her intently.

"It's j-just my b-brother w-w-we're half-b-bloods and – and –" she shuddered and then continued on, wiping away the tears, "I know we're not Muggle born but s-still, they're scary aren't they?" She looked up at Fred who now had both arms around her and was rocking softly back and forth.

In a voice barely audible he whispered, "I know…they scare me too."

* * *

"D'you think they've gone, the Death Eaters?" George asked aloud, trudging behind Evelyn who he did not expect to answer. She had ignored him haughtily ever since he'd told her to never tell him anything.

So when her voice suddenly interrupted the cracking of twigs and leaves George was taken aback, "yes, I believe so, we are getting closer and I hear no more screaming. But that could mean - oh!" She suddenly stopped and George walked into her, catching himself off guard.

"Bloody hell – oh – Merlin – that's not-?" But George saw Evelyn nod quickly, "how?" he whispered, staring up at a gap in the trees where The Dark Mark hung in the air, a snake protruding from the mouth of a skull casting an eerie green glow down upon them.

"Haven't the slightest…" she stepped back once more into George's chest. He stiffened and she quickly jumped away from him and trudged forwards where the red and green lights were just visible between the branches and leaves of the trees. She looked over her shoulder and up at the sky many times before the trees hid the image from view and all that remained was the green glow.

"GEORGE?" A loud cry interrupted the silence; Evelyn had stopped walking, her eyes staring in between two trees where the shout had come from. "GEORGE? He has to be around here somewhere, come on. Ruddy branches, oh I wish I wasn't underage!"

Rooted on the spot George watched as Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione emerged from the darkness looking bewildered.

"Oh, you're all right then," Ron said looking from Evelyn to George, "where's Fred?"

"Dunno, I – er – lost him when I was running I guess…" George lied, hoping that Evelyn would not give him away.

The six of them turned and began to make their way down a path and towards the edge of the forest. George and Evelyn were at the front, Hermione and Ginny in the middle, and Harry and Ron brought up the rear.

The forest was quiet now, for all the people had fled back to their tents and all the creatures had hidden from the sudden stampede of humans intruding in their homes. Almost as quiet as the forest was George, though he did have the disadvantage of stepping on leaves and twigs that made him louder than the animals that could not be heard. He kept glancing sideways towards Evelyn but she did not look at him, he merely got a good view at the profile of her face. With her dark hair pulled high above her head, and a nose that was rather large for her face and resembled a beak, she had the appearance of a bird, a raven even.

"Please if you could, refrain from looking at me, I'm afraid nothing about me is going to change." She said, still refusing to look at him.

"Oh, my sincerest apologies," George said rolling his eyes as the group emerged out of the forest.

"George! Ginny! Ron!" Arthur Weasley came bursting through a crowd of Ministry officials when he caught sight of his children. "Thank goodness you're all right, Harry, Hermione you two and – who's this George? Where's Fred?" He asked, looking around counting the heads of red that he could see. Bill, Percy and Charlie had all appeared beside them, clearly flustered that Fred was missing.

"What do you mean 'where's Fred?' I'm right here!" George whipped his head round to see Fred walking out of the forest, a slight smile on his face and Adelaide walking by his side.

"Hm, well now that we're all here … Perce you take the kids back to the tent, Bill, Charlie and I will stay here with The Ministry of course, we must try to figure out what happened … We will not be long!"

"But father, I work for The Ministry I think that I should stay as well!" Percy protested.

George ignored his fathers and brothers simple bickering and instead focused on Evelyn whose nostrils were flared slightly and her lips turned downwards as she glared at Adelaide who was biting the edge of her jumper nervously.

Before George could say anything, Evelyn turned abruptly towards him, "well George, I must head back to my tent now. Try not to cause too much trouble while I am gone. Goodbye." She nodded curtly to him and then made a slight spasm of a movement towards the others before speed walking away through the rows of tents.

"I should get going too…" Adelaide's voice seemed to break the silence. Fred offered to walk her home and soon both he and Adelaide had disappeared as well.

"Fine!" Percy's voice was loud and angry, "let's go! All of you! I'm tired!" He shouted at his siblings and Harry and Hermione before storming ahead of them, hands balled into fists at his side.


	9. Immaturity

SO sorry that it took me so long to get this chapter out. I had a lot of stuff going on with school work, and my social life and a major lack of a muse. Anyways, here it is! I tried to make it relatively longer than the rest, and I think I did! The beginning of the next chapter will be adjoining to the feast, I forgot that I had to add a little summin' summin' in. Anyways, enjoy and rate as always, hope you like it!

* * *

**NINE**

A few days had passed since the disaster at the World Cup and all Hogwarts students were making their way to King's Cross station in London so that they could catch the Hogwarts Express for the first day of school. Fred, George, the other Weasley's, Harry and Hermione made their way to King's Cross by Muggle taxi's which were seriously uncomfortable and caused Fred to be squished up against the window, a most uncomfortable position for anyone.

Fred and George had made up when they arrived at The Burrow the day after the match. George had taken the higher road and apologized to Fred, who accepted the apology instantly because being without his twin for several hours had made him feel alone but he still had a feeling of animosity towards George which could not be shaken so easily.

Fred stretched himself out along the length of the seat in the compartment with his hands resting comfortably behind his head while George sat on the opposite seat, they left the door open so that anyone was free to come in and join them.

"Oi, there you two are!" Lee slipped into the compartment and sat beside George. "What about that riot at The World Cup, eh? Scary stuff!"

"Tell me about it, the ruddy hell is going on in their minds?" George said.

"Probably got a right laugh out of it though, until The Ministry showed up," Fred chimed in, glancing out the compartment door every so often as if he was looking for someone.

"Yeah, well, let me tell you as soon as my parents saw 'em we were outta there. Dad whipped up a Portkey real quick, they're right paranoid I say. Nothing else bad happened though, right?" Lee said.

Both Fred and George shook their heads, briefly going over what happened with The Dark Mark and Harry's wand. The topic was dropped almost as soon as it was brought up and soon enough the three boys had pulled the compartment shades shut and were tinkering with the twins' joke products.

"You boys are brilliant!" Lee exclaimed once Fred and George had finished demonstrating all of the products in the Skiving Snackboxes, and the various other inventions they had created. They also introduced their idea for Extendable Ears. "And those Extendable Ears are a sure hit for success."

"Thanks mate, it's a shame that your mum won't let you run the joke shop with us, we'd love to have you – what the - ?" Fred stopped speaking when the compartment door slid open viciously, slamming against the frame to reveal Cedric Diggory and Felicia Fawcette, a Ravenclaw girl a year above the twins who lived around the village of Ottery St. Catchpole as well.

"The ruddy hell is this? Barging in on us! You didn't even knock!" Lee exclaimed, throwing his hands up wildly.

Felicia glared at him while Cedric merely took a step back; shuffling from foot to foot looking as though he had done something wrong and wanted to leave as soon as the chance arose.

The twins and Lee watched as Felicia stepped into the compartment, her eyes scrutinizing every inch of the compartment as if she was looking for something. She looked upon the bucket full of vomit and blood - that George had used while demonstrating the Nosebleed Nougats and Puking Pastilles – with disdain. When she reached to pick up the purple box of Skiving Snackboxes, George reacted quickly, shutting the box before her hand could reach it and placing it on his lap.

Felicia raised a thick eyebrow at George, "what have you got in there Weasley?"

"What's it to you?" He retorted, "There's no tweezers in here, so if you're looking for something to pluck your eyebrows with you might want to search somewhere else." He snapped, unable to bite his tongue. Fred and Lee bit their fists to try and hide their laughter and Cedric's mouth twitched but he composed himself quickly.

Felicia's nostrils flared threateningly and she pointed towards the shiny badge that was pinned to her robes, "do you see this Weasley?" She asked, "It says 'HG' which stands for 'Head Girl' which means that I can deduct house points and administer detentions for whomever I think deserves such punishments! You're a prime example of this, would you like a detention before you've even stepped into Hogwarts this year, Weasley?" She snarled.

"Oooh, I'm shaking in my trousers!" George squealed, placing both hands over his mouth in mock fright. Fred and Lee could handle the situation no longer and proceeded to laugh rather loudly which caused Felicia to turn on them.

"You three better watch yourselves, if I get any wind of anymore of your – your pranks I won't hesitate to take you to Professor Dumbledore!" She threatened, backing out of the compartment and standing in the doorway.

"Oh really? And what are you going to tell him, that the three of us couldn't handle your hideousness so you gave us detention? Dumbledore is a nice old man Felicia, but I doubt he'll care about your petty problems with people not appreciating your appearance!" Fred laughed as Felicia stalked off away from the compartment.

As the trio of boys began to impersonate Felicia, Cedric remained at the doorway, his eyes travelling between the three boys who were imitating Felicia, and the hallway in the train. Cedric decided on staying where he was for a few more moments and stepped into the compartment. The boys ceased their laughter, waiting for him to speak.

Cedric scratched the back of his head, and ran his fingers through his hair repeatedly before he opened his mouth. "Hey guys – uhm – maybe you could, y'know lighten up on Felicia a little bit? I mean, just try and … I don't know ease up on the teasing, she's not has tough skinned as she acts." He said, motioning to sit down but then deciding against it and remaining standing up.

The three boys looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Lee looked slightly troubled that he was being told off on joking about someone as annoying as Felicia, and George looked as though he was biting his tongue to stop him from saying something rude. Fred, however, looked totally at ease with the situation, if not a little angry.

"Really, you think we should be _nice_ to her? You're telling us to be civil towards her? To treat her like an 'equal' I suppose?" Fred questioned, staring at Cedric with deep interest. Cedric nodded and Fred continued, "we're supposed to treat Felicia like an equal, when she runs about the school abusing her authority as a Prefect? Merlin only knows what the bloody hell she's going to do now that she's Head Girl! I'm sorry, mate, but Felicia hasn't shown any of us a smidge of gratitude since she's been a Prefect. As far as I'm concerned, she doesn't deserve to be treated better than she is now." He finished with a tone of finality and crossing his arms across his chest looking at Cedric with a look of pure hatred.

Cedric seemed at a loss for what to say, while George and Lee looked at each other and nodded for they were on the same level as Fred. Felicia was a very cruel girl, and being named a Prefect had only further heightened her cruelty towards any students who had a fondness of disobeying the rules. Of course Cedric had only seen the sweet part of Felicia, for since he too had been a Prefect, and was now Head Boy, he was of the same caliber of Felicia and therefore deserved to be treated as an equal.

"Look – Fred, honestly-"

"You know what Cedric, I think it's time that you left us alone and-" Fred stopped abruptly. It wasn't because he was at a loss for what to say, someone had just appeared at Cedric's side that made Fred's nostrils flare.

"Oh, hello Fred!" Adelaide said cheerfully, snaking her arm around Cedric's waist and leaning into him. Fred clenched his fists, his nails digging into his sweating palms. Why did she have to come here? Why couldn't she have just stayed in her compartment?

"Hey … Adelaide," Fred managed to get out, glancing at her briefly. His chest ached when he looked at her, how could she have been so blatantly idiotic to Fred's obvious attraction to her? Did she enjoy dangling herself off of Cedric and in front of Fred? Jumping out of his reach every time he got too close?

"What are you guys up to?" She asked, looking into the compartment and seeing the awkward faces of Lee and George.

"Cedric here was just-"

"Leaving, I was just leaving." Cedric finished, frowning slightly at Fred before taking Adelaide's hand in his and walking away from the compartment, disappearing behind a crowd of students following the Trolley Lady.

Fred stepped back into the compartment and closed the door behind him. George and Lee instantly looked away from Fred who slumped into his seat with a frown on his face. Arguing was not something that Fred enjoyed doing, he'd much rather crack a joke or make someone laugh, fighting dampened his spirits, but sometimes he couldn't help it.

He sighed and looked over at George and Lee who were looking at him with sympathetic looks on their faces.

"Well, who wants some sweets then?" George asked as the Trolley Lady came by, sliding open the compartment door to reveal her trolley of multi coloured candies and goodies.

* * *

It was raining hard against the windows of The Great Hall. The enchanted ceiling above five long tables mimicked the weather outside, lightning streaked across the sky and rain fell down hard, disappearing magically before it had the chance to hit any of the students' heads. Two identical twins sat side-by-side making jokes to each other at the Gryffindor table, and snickering to themselves as they poked fun at the first years who were huddled together in a horde at the front of the hall waiting to be sorted.

"That boy's probably just soiled himself," George whispered pointing to a particularly round boy with jet black hair and glasses.

"Oi, Harry," Fred whispered, waving his hand near Harry's face to get his attention. "Doesn't that fat bloke going to sit on the stool look like you?" He asked sniggering as Harry's eyes travelled over to the boy.

"Hey, Fred's right Harry!" Ron whispered, blurting out in a silent fit of giggles when he looked at the boy. "Well, at least we know what you'd look like if you put on a few pounds now eh?" Harry stifled a giggle as Hermione snapped her head around and hit Ron over the head with her hand.

"The hell was that for?" Ron whined, rubbing the top of his head with a frown on his face.

"Shh!" Hermione shushed Ron with a finger over her lips and a scolding look on her face as she turned to face the front of The Great Hall where Dumbledore and a Ministry official had taken place in front of the podium.

"Hello students, young and old of Hogwarts! It is my pleasure to welcome you all back to this wonderful school, I hope that your journey was comfortable and enjoyable-" His eyes travelled over to where Fred and George sat as if he had been told of everything that had happened in their compartment, but before either of the two could notice this, Dumbledore shifted his gaze to other students in the hall. "Before we dig in to the wonderful meal that has been prepared for us by the house-elves-"

"House elves?" Hermione whispered, turning away from Dumbledore and towards the twins. "House-elves prepare the food that we eat?"

Fred and George looked at each other as though she had just asked what colour the sky was, "of course Hermione. Who do you think did it? Do you think Dumbledore just spends all his spare time down in the kitchens making all our meals for us?" George asked.

"Well, no, obviously not! But I certainly didn't think that house-elves were doing the work!"

"There's hundreds of them!" Fred exclaimed, completely ignoring the Ministry official – who just introduced himself as Barty Crouch - as he launched into a speech about 'safety'. "They clean the school; prepare the meals, light the fires. Honestly Hermione, the castle can't just do all of this by itself now, can it?"

"No! It can't, I _know_ that! But house elves shouldn't be enslaved to do all of our work!" She complained, her eyebrows furrowing together. "Oh this is just ridiculous, _what do you want_?" She snapped, turning to Ron who had been tapping her shoulder repeatedly throughout her rant of house-elves.

"Did you hear what Crouch just said?" Ron asked looking at not only Hermione but to Fred, George, Harry and Seamus who had just turned around to join the conversation.

"I heard 'im!" Seamus piped in, "Said that the Triwizard Tournament was going to be hosted here this year, didn't he?"

Fred and George looked at each other, the Triwizard Tournament? It sounded vaguely familiar, and devastatingly interesting. Instead of piping into the whispers of their peers around them, the two listened hard for what Crouch had to say about the tournament.

"The Triwizard Tournament is a famous tournament, it was created some 700 years ago and takes place every five years. It has been reinstated by your wonderful Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, and will be taking place here at your school. The schools that participate are Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and of course, Hogwarts. Three champions are chosen one from each school and they are each expected to participate in a series of tasks that will test their magical abilities, their nerve, their ability to come up with a logical conclusion, and of course their ability to cope with danger. The winner of the tournament is given 1000 galleons, and will forever have eternal glory…"

As Barty Crouch paused, students took the chance to talk excitedly amongst each other, speculating about what the tasks would be, and what the students of the other school would act like. There was also talk of how this person would be an excellent candidate, and boasts about who would win. It seemed as though the students would continue to talk for days until Dumbledore stepped up to the podium, silencing the students with a yell and a wave of his hand.

"Thank you, I know all of you are extremely excited for this event, but if you would please let Mr. Crouch finish explaining the rules of the tournament before you begin your chatter." Dumbledore said, smiling at the now quiet hall and stepping down from the podium to let Mr. Crouch resume his position.

"Ah, thank you Dumbledore. Now, not every student can enter the tournaments. Only students who are seventeen years and older will be able to enter…" Mr. Crouch trailed off as a series of angry shouts and outbursts erupted from the four tables of students.

"THAT'S COMPLETE AND UTTER HORSESHIT!" George yelled, standing up and shaking his fist in anger.

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT YOU DAMNED OLD SCROUGE! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" Fred yelled, throwing up his middle finger without a care. Why would Crouch leave that little bit of information to the end of his speech after speaking of the tournament? It would have been better if the students had their hopes and dreams shattered before learning anything about the tournament.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore shouted, his wand pointing at his throat to magnify his voice throughout the hall. Silence fell and students, like Fred and George, sat down in their seats after a few seconds of hesitation. "This rule has been put in place for very strict reasons. Wizards and witches who are underage are not at the same magical ability that those who are of age are at. Our guests will be arriving on October the 30th, once they have arrived students wishing to enter the tournament will have twenty four hours to put their name into the goblet, for now, the goblet will remain under supervision in my office. There will be every precaution that one could imagine in place to assure that no one – not even the cleverest witch or wizard – could penetrate." Again, Dumbledore's eyes slid to where Fred and George sat, whispering to one another about what the best way to get past the enchantments would be.

"An aging potion, definitely." Fred whispered, glaring at Barty Crouch who was now carrying an object covered in a cloth to the front of the hall.

"A real strong one though, can't be any sort of nancy bit." George responded, following Mr. Crouch with squinted brown eyes.

"Of course, we should get started immediately to ensure that it is perfect." Fred said, watching as Mr. Crouch pulled the cloth off of the unknown object to reveal a large glowing blue goblet. "Wicked." Fred cooed, eyeing the goblet with a mischievous look in his eye. "Doesn't look too dangerous now does it, Georgie?" He asked in a baby voice, poking George's side with his finger.

"Shut it! I never said it was!" George whined, smacking Fred's freckled hand with his own, equally as freckled one.

"Will both of you just _be quiet_!" Hermione snapped, whipping her head around – smacking Ron's face with her bush hair in the process – to glare at the twins. "You've talked all through the speech already, it's a wonder how you two learn anything!"

Fred and George rolled their eyes, evidently both Dumbledore and Crouch had finished their speeches because food suddenly appeared onto the golden plates that lined the center of each table, and both students and teachers alike began to pile food on their plates, chatting amongst one another mainly about the Triwizard Tournament and what excitement would arrive at Hogwarts with two new schools coming to visit.

"Don't even try to get past whatever enchantments Dumbledore will be putting on that goblet." Hermione said to the twins, looking down at her food instead of at them.

"And why shouldn't we?" George asked.

"Yeah, Granger, do you – uhm – doubt our magical abilities?" Fred questioned, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

"No – yes, yes I do. There will be enchantments on the goblet for good reason. People have died in the tournament-"

"How oo 'now?" Ron asked through a mouthful of potatoes and corn.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I've read about it, obviously. It's extremely dangerous, and it's a wonder why they even allowed it to take place again, Dumbledore must have had some serious influence regarding it…" she said the last part more to herself than anyone else, before perking up and looking at the twins, "your mother would definitely not want either of you, or Ron or Ginny to enter. She'd be much too concerned."

"Mum schmum!" Fred exclaimed, waving a hand dismissing the idea of his mother caring about his safety. "I can handle myself!"

"Me too!" George chimed in, "mark us Hermione. We will spend every waking hour - that we have not already taken up selling our products – concocting up ways to get our names into the goblet." He said, pointing his fork at her.

"Right you are George. Granger, I suspect that you will be quite impressed with us once October the 31st comes around. Heck – you may even want a kiss or two." He said with a wink.

"You two are so immature! No wonder your mother gets frustrated with you all the time!" Hermione may have been scolding the twins for their lack of maturity, but her face was slowly glowing red with the embarrassment (or satisfaction) that came with having being winked at by Fred Weasley himself.

"Immature? Well, that's our middle name!" The twins chorused together, raising their arms in triumph and clapping their equally freckled hands together in a high five turned handshake.


	10. Changes

**TEN**

The feast wore on and the students of Hogwarts became less enthusiastic about the Triwizard Tournament and keener to get to their beds. Heads were resting in the palms of hands, belts were being loosened (for comfort purposes only), and a few poor first years had nodding off into their treacle tart.

In the dreary haze of tiredness, and over-tiredness the students of Hogwarts had become blissfully unaware to the happenings around them, choosing to let their minds focus on the comfort of their warm beds that they would be able to sleep in soon. The whole student body of Hogwarts would have gotten to their beds five minutes earlier, had someone chosen to arrive to the feast on time.

A loud bang and the sound of wood stomping against stone made the students heads perk up looking for the source of the noise. They found it all too soon once they'd looked to the middle of the hall where a hulking figure strode briskly in between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables straight to the front of the hall where Professor Dumbledore was waiting, having slipped out of his seat unnoticed by any of the students.

The man had several unique qualities about him. The most notable being his wooden leg, and an electric blue eye that whizzed around in its socket, examining the hall, searching the students faces. Whispers erupted through the hall as they so often did, and students nodded to each other, his name rising from a few mouths of students we were familiar with the man.

"Sorry I'm late Professor," the man said once he had reached Professor Dumbledore's side. "Had a bit of work to smooth over at my home before making my way over," He grumbled, taking Dumbledore's thin hand in his own much larger, scarred one.

"No matter Alastor, as long as you are here I am grateful. Thank you for taking this position," Dumbledore said, smiling at the man – Alastor – before turning to the hall of students, eagerly awaiting an introduction. "Students, I must ask you to ignore the delay of our newest staff member, while he may be late there have been other, more … daring entrances to the school-" His blue eyes flicked over to where Harry and Ron sat, sniggering about the time they had crashed Mr. Weasley's flying car into the Whomping Willow in an attempt to make it to school on time. "-however, it is my pleasure to introduce to you Professor Moody, retired Auror for the Ministry and your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!" Dumbledore proceeded to clap, many students – who were familiar with Professor Moody – cheered, and others slumped back in their seats, wishing to be in their beds.

"Goodnight to you all!" Professor Dumbledore shouted, waving his arms in farewell to the students as they began filing out of the hall, first years following Prefects and older students budding up and dragging their feet towards their common rooms.

* * *

"Anyone care to bet how long Professor Moody is going to last?" Lee Jordan asked the rest of the boys in the sixth year dormitory as they lounged on their beds.

"Quite some time I figure," George said, stretching out on his bed like a starfish.

"What makes you say that?" Kenneth Towler, a fellow sixth year asked as he emerged at the door of the bathroom with his toothbrush in hand.

"Well, Towler, Alastor Moody was the best thing that ever happened to the Auror department at the Ministry." Fred said matter-of-factly as he stood on his four poster shirtless with his wand outstretched, pointing at each of the boys in the room in turn. "He has no fear-"

"No fear!" George echoed.

"He laughs in the faces of Death Eaters!"

"Laughs in their faces!"

"He can hex at the speed of light!" Fred exclaimed, jumping off his bed while simultaneously shooting a stinging hex at Towler who yelped and jumped back into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Oi, what's all the commotion up here?" The three turned to the dormitory entrance to see a tall figure slip through the doorway. It was their fellow roommate, Brian Dunstan, a tall lanky black haired boy who preferred to lurk about in silence and avoid the rest of his roommates rather than spend quality time with up.

"Oh nothing, Dunstan, just telling Towler why Professor Moody will be the longest Defence teacher we've had in a while." Fred said, lunging onto his knee as he shot yet another stinging hex at Dunstan who lazily moved out of the way before it had a chance to hit him. "Bugger, you're all too quick for me." Fred muttered, shaking his head and sitting on his trunk.

"Where were _you_ Dunstan?" George asked, sliding over by his bed, "hanging out with Bole?" He raised his brows suggestively.

"OHO!" Fred yelped, jumping off his trunk and striding over to Brian's bed, crawling on it. "Brian and Bole, B and B, do you guys lay in _bed_ together? Do you take _baths_ together? Huh, Tell us Brian, does Bole call you by sexy little nicknames or what?" He asked, sliding about Dunstan's sheets, running his hands all over his freckled chest and face.

"Shut up you two! I wasn't with Bole!" Brian growled through gritted teeth as he searched through his trunk.

"A likely story!" George rolled his eyes, smirking at Brian as he desperately tried to find his night clothes in his trunk before he had to suffer any more humiliation from the troublesome twins.

"BOLE! BRENNAN BOLE! I LOOOVE YOU!" Fred cried from somewhere between the tangle of sheets he had wrapped himself in on Brian's bed. "BRENNAN MY NAME IS BRIAN DUNSTAN AND I ABSOLUTELY LOOOVE YOU!"

Lee was doubled over with laughter by his trunk with tears streaming from his eyes. Kenneth could be heard laughing every now and again from thelavatory, and George was making kissing sounds into Brian's ears.

"I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH BRENNAN BOLE! NOW WEASLEY GET THE HELL OUT OF MY SHEETS BEFORE I HEX YOU!" Brian shouted, pulling the covers off of Fred's head, and pointing his wand directly at the spot between his eyes.

Fred was going cross-eyed, yet still managed to raise a brow. "You want me in bed now, yeah?" He asked, taking his eyes off Brian's wand for a second to look at his face instead.

"Shut up Weasley!" He grunted, jabbing his wand into Fred's side – which was conveniently covered with a large amount of the sheets.

"Alright you've had your fun Dunstan, I think it's time for you to get in your night clothes and head off to bed." Fred looked solemn on serious on the outside, but inside his mind was not on making peace with Brain, but causing him more strife instead.

Seeing the outward look of seriousness on Fred's face, Brain backed away, allowing Fred to get up off his bed and move closer towards his own.

"Well, sweet dreams Brian. Don't wet yourself while you dream of Brennan frolicking half naked through the Forbidden Forest – AGHOUCH!" Fred jumped high in the air as the spell hit in right in his rear, singing his bottoms and a part of his bare ass. "OOF! WHAT THE HECK! GET ME WATER!" He yelled, hands flapping around his backside as he ran over to the lavatory, flinging the door open, nearly hitting Kenneth in the nose, and – with his pants now completely discarded on the lavatory floor - hopping into the bath running the cool water immediately.

Fred sighed and smiled serenely at the comfort he felt now on his rear instead of the immense burning sensation that had engulfed him not so long ago. A serene smile crept across his face for a few fleeting moments as he sat in the tub until his eyes fell upon the doorway where George, Lee and Kenneth were standing, staring at him in shock.

His smile quickly turned to a frown and he lowered his hands to cover up things that he'd rather to keep to himself – for now. "Bugger off all of you!" He snapped, sitting up onto the edge of the tub and waving the three boys away with his free hand. "Nothing to see unless you want a peak at the family jewels…" He said, wagging his brows at the boys who had disappeared so fast one would have thought that they had Apparated away.

"Yeah that's what I thought! You're all jealous!" He called after them, taking a scarlet towel off of a shelf and drying himself off with it. Once he'd finished and thrown the towel on the floor he made his way to the door, kicking at his now ruined pajama bottoms and peaking his head around the frame, "you all better be under the covers, I'm leaving the lavatory and I wouldn't want to – ah – embarrass any of you with my rockin' bod!" He called out, seeing four scarlet curtains closed.

"You've got the body equivalent to Millicent Bulstrode!" A voice called from the depths of one of the beds, Fred assumed it was George but just rolled his eyes. He grabbed his wand and summoned his pajama pants, reparing them with a flick and putting them off before he climbed into his bed and shut the curtains.

"Fred?" A voice that sounded like the uncertain tone that Kenneth always spoke in asked.

"What?" Fred answered as he lay on his back with his hands behind his head.

"George?" The voice called again.

"Yeah?" George answered, laying in nearly the exact same position as Fred was.

"Are you two really going to put your names into the goblet?"

"Of course we are." The twins said together, "why wouldn't we?"

"You should concentrate more on your joke shop items." Kenneth told them.

"Why?" They asked, still speaking in unison.

"They're a sure hit for gold, Lee was showing me them. If you guys go into the tournament … you might die, and then you won't be able to finish with your shop."

"You sound like Hermione …" George grumbled, turning on his side and frowning.

"How do you know that we want to start a joke shop?" Fred questioned, sitting up now, interested in how Kenneth had come across this bit of information.

"I've been sharing a dormitory with you two since first year, I may look like I'm not listening but I really am."

"So you've been spying on us? Tsk, tsk, tsk Kenneth! I should report you to Dumbledore this instant!" George mocked, shaking his head in the darkness.

"No! No, I haven't been _spying_, you guys just talk about it in the open and I happen to be an accomplished multi-tasker, and I've got pretty good hearing." Kenneth explained to the boys.

"Well – er – thanks Kenneth." Fred said, lying back down in his bed, unsure of how he should feel about Kenneth's sudden interest in the shop.

"You deserve to own a shop, don't give up, alright?"

Neither of the twins replied. They both chose to lay immobile; blinking into the darkness, thinking about what Kenneth had just told them. Someone who was not a family member had expressed faith in their business plans, their joke items, and thought that they deserved to run a shop. This was new to them, something that they hadn't yet adjusted to. People had been nice to them in the past, but no one had even hinted that they had any bit of faith in the twins at all. Kenneth was the first, and this humbled the twins. It made them believe that they did have what it took to run a joke shop despite their lack of funds. This thought brought a smile to both of their faces, and a slight tear to the corner of each eye.

"I'm still putting my name in that goblet though; you can't take that away from me." Fred said. Laughter erupted from each bed, even the one closest to the door where Brian Dunstan lay on his side listening to the conversation around him.

* * *

The sun rose the next morning at seven o'clock, sending rays of light across the grounds, illuminating the tips of the trees in the Forbidden Forest and the East side of the castle. The grounds were empty, for it was only seven o'clock on the first day back at school and most students were snuggled comfortably in their beds under their blankets, refusing to awaken and feel the slight chill that hung in the air. Other more studious students were already getting themselves dressed and organized and heading down to The Great Hall for an early start at breakfast.

Fred and George Weasley were among those students who chose to sleep in past seven and eight o'clock, reliving their summer nights and days in their dreams not wanting to face what the school day would bring them.

"Boys you should get up!" Lee called from the lavatory as he brushed his teeth.

The twins mumbled incoherent responses back, shifting in their beds and keeping their eyes closed shut.

"It's nearly nine, you might want to skip down to The Great Hall and get your timetable and some breakfast before the teachers is gone." Lee told them, emerging from the lavatory dressed in his school clothes. "Come on then, you don't want Gryffindor losing points on the first day!" Lee swished his wand and sent the curtains of the boys' beds flying open.

"AGGHH THE LIGHT IT BUUURNNNS!" George yelled, shielding his face from the light that streamed into the dormitory from the windows.

"SSSSSSSSSSS THE LIGHT!" Fred hissed, ducking under the covers. "HOW CRUEL YOU KNOW THAT WEASSSSLEYSSSSS CANNOT SSSSSSSSSSURVIVE IN THE SSSSSSSSUN!" He shouted from underneath the scarlet covers were he lay sniggering at his own joke.

"Unfortunately for you two I've seen you out in the light before," Lee commented, flicking his wand again to make the covers fly off of the twins. Only, the twins were quick and held onto their sheets tightly, their hands slipping every few inch or so as the magic pulled the sheets away from them. Finally, their hands could no longer hold onto the covers any longer and they were left sitting up in their beds glaring at Lee.

"You'll thank me later!" He called over his shoulder, sending the twins a look of glee as he headed out of the dormitory door.

"What a prat," Fred said, clambering off his bed and over to his trunk where he burrowed through it, looking for his uniform. "Could have slept in longer if he hadn't woke us up," He grumbled, pulling off his night clothes and pulling on his boxers and trousers and belt as George mimicked him.

"Yeah well, at least there will be some food left for us." George commented as he made his wand tie his tie for him while he headed to the lavatory to wash up.

"Now we can't shower…" Fred whined as he joined his twin in the lavatory after pulling a sweater on over his head.

George turned to his twin and leaned in closer, taking in a deep breath with his nose, smelling him. "You don't smell though, no need to fret." He said, patting Fred on the shoulder, "how about me?" He lifted up his arm and Fred threw him a skeptical look.

"You expect me to stick my nose in your pit?" He asked, putting his toothbrush back into the holder. "Are you mental?"

"I just sniffed you!" George whined, "The least you could do is return the favor!" As Fred made to inch away, George grabbed his head with his arm and shoved Fred's face into his pit.

"GERROFF ME!" Fred yelled, fighting to get away from George's armpit.

"SMELL IT FREDDY!" George yelled, laughing with glee as he let go of Fred and watched him pat down his hair. "Well? How do I smell?" He asked as the two walked out of the dormitory and down toward the common room with their book bags slung over their shoulders.

"Fine, you smell fine." Fred answered, stepping through the portrait hole, still desperately trying to fix his hair.

* * *

"Weasleys!" The twins were dragging their feet through a second floor corridor when they heard their last name being called. They turned their heads to see Professor McGonagall racing down the corridor to catch up with them a small stack of parchment floating behind her.

"Yes Professor?" George asked.

"Why aren't you two boys in class? It's nearly half past nine!" She said, giving them a look of disapproval.

"Well Professor, we were just about to go down to The Great Hall to fetch some breakfast and our timetables-"

"No, no! You two must go to class! Do you want to lose points for Gryffindor on the first day?" She said, summoning their timetables with her wand and handing each of them one. "Now off you go!" She said, ushering them away with her hands.

"But – Professor!" Fred called after her after he took a look at both his and his brothers' timetable.

"What!" She called back, already halfway down the corridor.

"We've got Transfiguation with you!" George shouted.

"Well then come on!"

The twins started off down the corridor after McGonagall, heading towards her classroom.

"Good morning class," McGonagall greeted the already waiting class of Gryffindors as she stalked into the room, the pile of parchment landing with a soft thud on her desk.

"Good morning Professor McGonagall," the class droned as Fred and George slipped into seats beside one another in the middle of the classroom.

"Is it so terrible to be back at school that you all must greet me in that dreadful tone?" McGonagall asked as she stood behind her desk, surveying the class.

"No Professor, it's just we're all dead tired." George told her, sitting up straight and looking around the class for agreement from his fellow students. All of them nodded and cried out in agreement.

Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes and a tight smile formed, and she began to launch into a deep explanation about conjuration and self transfiguration which would be their main focus on throughout the year.

The bell rang at 10:30, indicating the end of class. The twins rose up from their seats, laughing at each other and other students in the class. They had been practicing changing the appearance of themselves and others and some – including the twins – had ended up with some shocking results.

They took their seats in charms, still sniggering at each other's large noses and puffy cheeks that would – according to McGonagall – wear off before lunch.

Charms class was, as usual, a complete riot for Fred and George, yet somehow managed to be extremely uneventful for them at the same time. It was true that charms was their most productive class, being one of the only classes that enabled them to work on their joke products without being ridiculed by the teachers or told to stop. Flitwick was absolutely thrilled when the twins demonstrated their Skivving Snackboxes for him and the class, and he nearly fell of his stack of books that he used as a sort of pedestal, when the twins both took a Canary Cream and burst into canaries, and then back again for the whole class to see.

"Oh, marvelous, simply marvelous boys I can only imagine what you will come up with next!" Flitwick fawned over the boys as the bell rang signaling the lunch break.

"Don't fret Professor Flitwick," Fred said, gathering up the rest of the Skivving Snackboxes that they had not already sold and putting them into his pack. "Whatever you can imagine, I reckon George and I can make." He told the short Professor who kept the two for several minutes after the bell to advise them on producing more items.

"You're sure to do well, boys!" He called after them as they walked down the corridor heading towards The Great Hall for lunch.

"Hey, where've you two been?" Lee asked Fred and George as they climbed onto the bench, throwing their packs underneath the table and grabbed two ham sandwiches each.

"Talking with Flitwick about our line of joke shop products," George said, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"Did you two get in trouble for them?" Lee asked, leaning towards the twins with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open, ready to complain about any bad things that Professor Flitwick might have said about the twins' creations.

"No mate! He loves 'em! He lets us demonstrate them to the class, _and _let us sell a few Skivving Snackboxes while we were at it!" Fred launched into a detailed account about how Flitwick had let them work on their joke items a lot last year, and how he had shown a particular interest in their skills and the end result.

"That's brilliant! Merlin I wish I was there to see the look on his face!" Lee exclaimed, "if only I hadn't had to take Ancient Runes …" he added darkly, staring at the table with a look of pure hatred on his face.

"Yeah that's mental, why do you even need to take all those extra subjects anyway? You're going to a Healer, not some wizard who knows everything about the whole damned wizarding world!" George told him, raising his brows and nodding. Fred nodded too, adding that Lee was better off dropping all classes and skipping out.

"If I did that my mum would have my head – literally, she'd kill me muggle style." Lee told them, causing a burst of laughter loud enough for the Slytherins across the hall to hear.

"HEY WEASLEYS SHUT IT!" A rather husky boy yelled, standing up in his seat.

"WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER HERE AND MAKE US DERRICK!" Fred yelled, standing up as well.

Oliver Derrick sat back down on the bench, shaking his head and whispering something to the group of boys he was with. Fred smirked.

"YEAH THAT'S RIGH' YOU BIG FAT LUMP, SIT BACK DOWN! YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T TAKE ME!" Fred continued to shout, flexing his nonexistent muscles. "YOU WAIT UNTIL QUIDDITCH COMES ROUND I'LL GIVE YOU A LUMP THE SIZE OF YOUR FIST ON THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD!" He roared, smiling when he saw Derrick slam his fist down on the table.

"There isn't going to be Quidditch this year," Fred heard Hermione say as he sat back down.

"What?!" He, George, Lee, Harry and Ron yelped simultaneously.

"Because of the tournament, there would be too much going on, so Dumbledore cancelled it." She said, packing up her books and standing up.

"That's rubbish!" George complained, "First they say that underage wizards can't enter into the tournament, and now Quidditch is cancelled! What are they trying to do? Bore us to death?"

"I bet they are trying to bore us to death," Fred said a little while later as the two headed towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom behind a horde of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students headed in the same direction.

"I'm sure Moody will be a riot though!" George said, suddenly perking up at the thought of having his first lesson with the newest addition to the staff.

This comment sent a wave of similar ones through the crowd of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students filing into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Professor Moody was not in the room but it was clear that he had been. The walls were lined with pictures of humans undergoing torture, interesting anatomies of dark creatures, and several groups of men huddled close with dark cloaks on, peering out of their hoods every so often to check if they were being watched. Not only were the unusual portraits a new addition to the room, there were several jars of spiders, and other more sinister looking beings that most of the students were wary of approaching.

"OI, FRED!" George called, looking around the class for his twin. He found him, standing by the door fighting with someone – a girl. George abandoned his place by a small aquarium full of seaweed, hiding three vicious grindylows, and made his way over to where his twin stood attempting to pry a purple box out of the hand of Evelyn Dimitrov.

"No – give – it – back!" Fred grunted, his knuckles turning pale as he gripped the box tightly.

"These – are not – acceptable! I will – report you to – Dumbledore – immediately!" Evelyn spoke in tight breaths, posing a very good fight.

"These – aren't – yours!"

"They – are – despicable – items!" Evelyn shouted, shutting her eyes as he pulled as hard as she could trying to get the box of Skiving Snackboxes in her grasp. Fred's face turned from angry to mischievous in seconds, George saw his grip lessen on the box as he stopped fighting for complete control over it. Evelyn's eyes were still shut tight and once Fred had completely let go of the box, she was flung backward right into the arms of George who leapt back in shock, dropping Evelyn to the floor.

Fred doubled over with laughter, pointing at Evelyn who was hastily picking herself up, dusting off her skirt and snatching up the box of Skivving Snackboxes which had flung open as she fell.

George opened his mouth to speak but the look Evelyn shot at him made him close his mouth immediately.

"You two-" She growled, pointing at each of the twins in turn, "you better watch yourselves because next time I see any of these-" she held up the box, "I'll report them to Dumbledore and you _will_ be sorry." Evelyn turned away, her dark ponytail swinging round as she did so, and sat down in between two Ravenclaw girls.

"Bugger …" Fred mumbled, sliding into a seat one row behind Evelyn. "I need those back!"

"What were you doing with them anyway?" George asked, looking not at Fred, but at the back of Evelyn's head.

"Selling them what do you think I was doing? Flaunting them in front of Dimitrov's face so that she could take them away from me? No sir, I was trying to make us some money." Fred explained, completely ignorant to the fact that George was not paying attention to him.

The pounding of wood on stone brought both of the twins out of their thoughts and back to the classroom where Professor Moody had just entered, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Good afternoon, I'm Professor Moody," He grunted, coming to a stop at the blackboard where he roughly scratched his name on with chalk. "I'll be your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers like Dumbledore said." He grumbled, turning around to face the class, his magic eye whizzing around fiercly in its socket.

"Where can I get one of those?" Fred whispered to George, referring to Moody's magical eye which landed abruptly on the twins who immediately stopped whispering to each other and stared at Moody, unblinkingly.

"Weasley boys, eh? Your parents still reproducing you buggers?" He growled, stomping over to their desk, staring down at them with a menacing look on his face. "Your father has caused quite some strife's at The Ministry what with his experimenting with Muggle things."

Fred and George exchanged side glances quickly while Moody shook his head at them.

"I'll be keeping my eye on you two…" He said darkly, clunking away to the front of the class to being explaining the three Unforgivable Curses.

Something out of the corner of his eye caught George's attention, he turned around to see Evelyn staring at him with a cocked eyebrow, and he raised one in turn and waited for her reaction. She did nothing except for whip her head back around, her sleek dark ponytail swishing as she did so.

* * *

Class ended with the ring of a bell and the sixth year Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students who had been in the double Defence Against the Dark Arts period with the newest Professor left the room with looks of pure glee and excitement attached to their faces as they imitated what happened in the previous two periods.

"Man, Moody is _wicked_!" Fred exclaimed as he and George made their way up to the Gryffindor common room.

"I don't find him _wicked_ at all," a snobbish voice said from behind the boys. They turned to see Evelyn approaching them at light speed, her head held high and her thick eyebrows raised as though she was mocking them.

"Well you also think that going to the library is _fun_, so we can't really count your opinion in any way" Fred replied, tilting his head back and forth with wide eyes and a silly expression on his lips.

Evelyn smirked, "it's comments like that that make me not want to give certain items of value back to you." She said, reaching into her pack and extracting the Skivving Snackbox that she had confiscated from them earlier.

Fred's face fell into the shape of an 'o' and he reached his arm out longingly for his and his twins' most prized possession, it was the item that was sure to guarantee them success, and he didn't want to lose precious galleons on Dimitrov's snaky ways.

Evelyn put the box behind her back, shaking her head, "no, no, no, Weasley, I'm not just going to give them back to you for nothing you've got to promise me something."

If there was one thing that The Weasley Twins hated more than anything, it was promises, especially promises made by enemies.

"What is it?" George asked eager to find out what Evelyn could possibly need from the two of them.

"I heard through the grapevine that you two are planning to fool the enchantments that Dumbledore puts in place so that no one under the age of seventeen can enter." The twins nodded vigorously, hanging on to her every word. "I want to help."

* * *

**This will probably be my last chapter until February, simply because in two weeks I have exams so next week I've got to study for them and AHHH! But I just finished all my ISU's and I thought that I should give you guys a little summin' summin'! This chapter is a bit over 5 000 words (5 396) to be exact, so I think I deserve a review for seven, no? I've only got four and there have been lots of people who have added it to their alert lists so if you actually like it (or don't like it, I'm open to constructive criticism, not flat out bashing of my story) then PLEASE leave a review! I want to know that people are actually reading my story and I wanna know what you guys think about it! So if you have any suggestions, please, suggest them!**

**Thank you :)**


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